


The Boy and The Bat: A Magical Anthology

by ColourAndCity



Series: Sin-ui Johwa [2]
Category: ATEEZ (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Animal Attack, Animal Transformation, Bats, Blood Drinking, Clairvoyance, Demon Summoning, Demonic Possession, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Exorcisms, Familiars, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Ghosts, M/M, Magic-Users, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Roommates, Vampires, Witches, cat familiar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:15:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25262941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColourAndCity/pseuds/ColourAndCity
Summary: Seonghwa came from a long line of very wealthy witches and was completely enamored with all traditional elements of witchcraft. He could often be found dressed in antiquated all-black clothing with his signature wide-brimmed hat. It also wasn't uncommon for him to be carrying around a large broomstick—his preferred mode of transportation—while his black cat familiar Dal trotted happily at his heels.Hongjoong was a modern vampire just trying to make it in a world filled with humans. Attending college was a mildly terrifying prospect for him as he didn't really like being around people and his previously nocturnal lifestyle had never really forced him to interact with the daylight crowds. He also had the odd habit of bursting into a flurry of bats whenever he was stressed or flustered."I'm sorry but there must be some sort of mistake as I explicitly requested a single room." Seonghwa huffed when the young vampire showed up at his door during dorm move-in day for the specialty college he would be attending."Well, apparently there's a shortage in housing so looks like you're gonna be stuck with me." Hongjoong grumbled, pushing past him into the suite with a large suitcase....and they were roommates.
Relationships: Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Series: Sin-ui Johwa [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830124
Comments: 206
Kudos: 355





	1. Sweet Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> The majority of the short stories in this anthology will be casual fluff but there will be some stories that will be somewhat explicit in nature (hence the overall M rating). Chapters containing more mature themes will be indicated as such in the notes at the beginning of the chapter if you wish to skip those chapters and stick to the happy fluff.
> 
> Tags will be updated as necessary as each story is added.
> 
> Additionally there is no overarching plot and the timeline will jump back and forth between stories as if you’ve found someone’s personal diary but all the pages are out of order.

The sun had long since set when Seonghwa heard Hongjoong return home from his evening classes. He was pouring over several different magical texts that were spread haphazardly over his desk when the door to the suite swung open and Hongjoong trudged into the room. Despite having a bedroom of his own, he had apparently decided to find solace in the company of Seonghwa instead. Shrugging off his book bag and tossing it to the floor he walked over to Seonghwa’s bed and flopped face down on the soft patchwork comforter, letting out a long groan as he did so. Dal, who had been sat atop a nearby bookshelf, was quick to jump down from his perch to investigate, lovingly rubbing his head against Hongjoong’s hand that was dangling over the edge of the bed.

“Not now Dal.” Hongjoong grumbled, pulling his hand away. “M’not in the mood.”

Dal gave a disappointed mew as he stood up against the side of the bed and pawed against Hongjoong’s shoulder.

“Dal, would you give us a bit of privacy?” Seonghwa said sweetly as he tucked a pencil behind his ear and swiveled around in his chair. 

He gave his familiar a quick scratch under his chin before Dal let out a happy trill and scampered off into the other room.

“Hongjoong, what’s the matter?” Seonghwa said empathetically, turning his sole attention on him while pulling his chair closer.

“Nothing.” Hongjoong mumbled. “Just… exhausted.”

“You had a practical today didn’t you? Did it not go over well?” Seonghwa said with a bit of a pout. 

With a small poof, Hongjoong had turned into his tiny bat form and began clambering across the comforter towards Seonghwa.

“Aw JwiJwi, that bad, huh?” Seonghwa said endearingly as he held out his hand so that Hongjoong could climb into his palm.

After learning about Hongjoong’s unusual reflex/coping mechanism of turning into a bat, Seonghwa had lovingly given him that pet name. It was short for bagjwi, which admittedly wasn’t all that creative as it directly translated to ‘bat’ but Hongjoong seemed to have taken a liking to it so Seonghwa often called him that whenever they were alone together.

Once Hongjoong’s tiny claws had taken a strong grip on his fingers, Seonghwa carefully raised him up to his shoulder, allowing Hongjoong scrambled over to perch there. Hongjoong softly pressed himself into the fabric of Seonghwa’s shirt and let out a small little chirp in thanks.

“Are you hungry?” Seonghwa asked while gently stroking the velveteen fur on Hongjoong’s ears with his finger.

Hongjoong gave a couple small chirps.

“Alright, alright.” Seonghwa said with a laugh as if he could understand exactly what Hongjoong was saying.

Seonghwa reached up and undid the large brooch he wore on his lapel before pricking the end of his pointer finger. As a small amount of blood began to pool on the tip, he carefully offered it up to Hongjoong who pulled the finger in closer and eagerly began lapping up the blood all while making heartbreakingly adorable little squeaky noises as he did so.

Hongjoong’s furry little body vibrated eagerly as he tightly clung to Seonghwa’s finger, not letting a single drop of blood go to waste.

“Easy there.” Seonghwa cooed. “You don’t want to take too much and get too dizzy.”

Hongjoong gave a small chirp in protest when Seonghwa eventually pulled his finger away. Seonghwa raised his finger to his lips and licked over the small wound, having it heal up almost immediately.

As Seonghwa replaced the brooch on his shirt, Hongjoong clambered around the back of Seonghwa’s shirt collar. An involuntary shiver ran up Seonghwa’s spine from the ticklish sensation of the small bat claws on the back of his neck as Hongjoong grasped at the longer strands of Seonghwa’s hair. Eventually, after a bit of a struggle and a gentle push from Seonghwa’s hand, he managed to climb up to the top of Seonghwa’s head, nestling amongst the finely permed hair.

“Stay up there as long as you wish.” Seonghwa said with a bit of a laugh, gently patting Hongjoong’s fuzzy little head.

Hongjoong let out a couple more chirps and Seonghwa went back to his studies. It wasn’t long before Hongjoong drifted off to sleep.

Several hours had passed and Seonghwa knew it was getting rather late and he would need to turn in for the night himself. He carefully scooped the snoozing Hongjoong up in his hands and carefully lowered him from his resting place. Quickly and quietly he made his way across the suite to Hongjoong’s bedroom, pulling backs the blankets on the bed and gently placing Hongjoong down on the pillow.

“You must have really been exhausted, huh JwiJwi?” Seonghwa said softly as he rubbed gentle little circles in Hongjoong’s fur with his thumb.

In another poof, Hongjoong had changed back to his vampire form, stirring slightly but otherwise remaining fast asleep. Seonghwa pulled the blankets up over him and leaned down to plant a soft kiss on Hongjoong’s forehead.

“Sweet dreams.” Seonghwa whispered as he turned and headed out of the room, carefully closing the door behind him.


	2. Show Me Your Teeth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for a slightly spicier series of events. Story rating: T

It was a little after noon when Seonghwa’s stomach let out a loud grumble, alerting him to the fact that he hadn’t eaten yet and that he was absolutely famished. He gave his stomach a light pat and carefully marked the page of the textbook he was on. Dragging himself away from his studies, he casually made his way to the shared kitchen to see what he could scrounge together for a meal. 

As soon he opened the fridge door, half a dozen blood bags came spilling out. One had ripped open in the process and splattered its contents everywhere, staining everything from the impeccably clean floor tiles to the lower portion of Seonghwa’s pants. It took a minute for Seonghwa to process what had just happened as he cautiously took a step back from the fridge, his hand still tightly gripping the door handle. His body gave a violent shudder as it finally hit him—that he was now covered in some stranger’s blood—and he quickly covered his mouth with his hand to prevent himself from gagging.

“Hongjoong!” Seonghwa growled.

After reciting a quick spell under his breath, the blood spatters quickly evaporated from all the affected surfaces and Seonghwa, a self-proclaimed ‘neat freak’ let out a sigh of relief.

Looking back into the fridge, he saw that the lower shelf was absolutely overflowing with blood bags, all type O. He gave another cringe thinking about how random bags of blood were just casually being stored next to his own fresh foods.

“This has to be some sort of health code violation.” Seonghwa muttered to himself as he begrudgingly picked the remaining intact blood bags up off the floor.

“Hongjoong!” Seonghwa loudly called once more. “Hey! Can you come out here for a second?”

A loud, agitated groan came from inside Hongjoong’s bedroom followed by the sound of movement behind the closed door. After a couple minutes he reluctantly came shuffling out of his bedroom, dark circles evident under his eyes and his hair a disheveled mess. Seonghwa gave him a quick glance up and down and grimaced at his unkempt state.

“Wasswrong?” He mumbled, tiredly rubbing his face as his body was still not used to being awake during the daylight hours and it was taking a long time to adjust.

“This is an absolute mess!” Seonghwa scolded, brandishing the blood bags at him and gesturing at the chaotic state of the inside of the fridge. “Also why do you have such a huge stockpile? You know there is a blood bank right down the street that allows open feeding.”

Hongjoong lazily took hold of the blood bags and tightly hugged them against his chest, eyes glazed over as his mind struggled to focus on what Seonghwa was saying.

“I know but, um, well, I don’t really drink from humans?” Hongjoong replied quietly, eyes focused on the floor and he clung tightly onto his food source.

Seonghwa seemed quite thrown off by his response. “What do you  _ mean _ you don’t drink from humans?”

“I just don’t!” Hongjoong retorted while giving an agitated pout.

“Is it an ethics thing or something?” Seonghwa pressed. “If you don’t have fresh blood now and then that can’t be healthy… can it?”

“No it’s just… it’s my teeth.” Hongjoong grumbled as he pushed past Seonghwa and began shoving the blood bags back into the overflowing fridge compartment.

“Your teeth?” Seonghwa said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, it’s kind of embarrassing, okay?!” Hongjoong replied, looking back over his shoulder at Seonghwa and giving him a sort of grimace-like smile to show him what he meant.

When he bared his teeth Seonghwa could see that his fangs appeared to not be properly aligned with his bite.

“You have malocclusion.” Seonghwa stated empathetically while taking a step closer and bending down to get a better look.

“Yeah. Don’t really have the money to get ‘em fixed and can’t really drink from someone without basically having to rip their neck out so blood bags it is.” Hongjoong said in a distracted tone as he continued to struggle with the blood bags.

Seonghwa gave him a forlorn look.

“Give me a minute.” He said as he stood back up and quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket, dialing a number and striding back into his bedroom without another word.

Hongjoong just shook his head dismissively and went back to fighting with the pile of blood bags, quickly shutting the fridge door before they could come spilling out again. 

Hongjoong could hear Seonghwa talking on the phone to someone but he couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. Seonghwa was on the phone for quite some time and as Hongjoong’s brain slowly awoke from the daytime fog, he started to become more anxious as to who exactly he was talking to and what they were talking about at such length. 

Seonghwa eventually emerged from his room with an accomplished look on his face.

“Alright. So.” He began. “I talked to student housing about our living arrangements…”

Hongjoong’s gut twisted in a knot thinking that Seonghwa had probably snitched on him and that they were going to take his blood away.

“They will be sending up a mini fridge for you so that you have somewhere to store your blood bags for the time being.” Seonghwa continued. “While they normally wouldn’t allow it, I told them it was a necessary requirement due to your specific diet requirements.”

“Oh, uh, thanks?” Hongjoong stuttered out, eyes wide in disbelief as he had honestly not expected Seonghwa to be so accommodating in the slightest.

“Additionally, I hope I’m not overstepping at all but I called around and found an orthodontist that specializes in vampire orthodontics. I’ve already set it up so that you can have a consultation for braces and any charges will be billed directly to my family’s bank account instead of yours. But it is 100% up to you!” Seonghwa passed Hongjoong a small piece of paper with a name and a phone number written on it. “Here is the number, just set up an appointment if or when you’re ready and everything will be taken care of, no questions asked.”

Hongjoong was absolutely flabbergasted as he took the paper from Seonghwa and just stared at it in bewilderment.

“But… but you can’t be serious?” He sputtered out. “This costs so much money!”

“Trust me, it’s fine.” Seonghwa said with a laugh, waving off Hongjoong’s protest. “My family has more money than they know what to do with, might as well put some of it to good use.”

“I don’t know how to even begin to thank you.” Hongjoong said quietly.

“Don’t worry about it.” Seonghwa said with a bit of a wink a reassuring smile.

Over the next couple of weeks Hongjoong finally gathered up the courage to book a consultation with the orthodontist. Seonghwa even volunteered to accompany him to the initial appointment as support. After all was said and done, he ended up getting a set of shiny metal braces across both the top and bottom row of his teeth to help pull down his fangs and better align his bite so that it would actually be possible for him to feed once more. 

To say it was a strange sensation having the braces would have been an understatement for Hongjoong. Due to a vampire’s natural healing ability they didn’t cause him any pain, but at the same time it made it quite difficult to actually shift and realign his teeth and the wires had to be enchanted to bear the additional strain. During the first couple of days, Hongjoong couldn’t stop himself from consistently tonguing over the metal brackets whenever his mind began to wander. Sometimes he would be so focused on the braces that he wouldn’t notice what he was doing until his tongue had become nearly raw.

One minor setback was that the braces had given him a slight lisp for the first week as he got used to things. Seonghwa had said that it was utterly adorable but Hongjoong would always immediately dismiss his comments.

After about three weeks Seonghwa had noticed that Hongjoong was still living entirely off of blood bags and out of concern he decided to see for himself just how Hongjoong’s progress was going.

“Here, let me see.” Seonghwa said in a soothing voice. “Show me your teeth.”

He gently tilted up Hongjoong’s chin while pulling down his bottom lip with his thumb, showing off the rows of small metal brackets dashed across Hongjoong’s teeth. His small fangs were now much more prominent.

“Hmmm looks good. But have you still not fed from a human?” Seonghwa asked casually.

Hongjoong averted eye contact and gave a bit of a scowl, roughly pushing Seonghwa’s hand away. “I’m working up to it, okay?”

“Well if it’s confidence you need, you’re welcome to practice on me.” Seonghwa replied nonchalantly. “I don’t mind.”

“What?! Are you crazy?” Hongjoong balked.

Seonghwa just shook his head. “In all honesty, I’m halfway decent at healing magic so if you were to mess up you’d be less likely to do any real harm to me over the average human.”

“Get out of here with your logic. No. Absolutely not.” Hongjoong huffed. “I’ll go to the blood bank… eventually. Just give me time.”

“Well if you change your mind, I swear it won’t be any trouble at all.” Seonghwa said kindly as he turned to head back into his bedroom.

A small pang of hunger slowly began to creep over Hongjoong and he began to mull over Seonghwa’s words, anxiously tonguing at his braces as he did so. It had really been entirely too long since he had been able to properly feed from a human and he could feel his mouth already beginning to salivate merely at the thought of it. In a small exasperated burst, Hongjoong gave his hair a frustrated ruffle.

“Okay fine!” He finally gave in. “But we are going to take it slow. Understood?”

“As you wish, Hongjoong.” Seonghwa replied as he turned back to face him with a kind smile.

“Okay, um, give me your wrist then.” Hongjoong had started to say but Seonghwa was already unbuttoning the collar of his shirt to expose his neck.”Wh-what are you doing?! No, no, no! Put that away!”

Seonghwa froze mid-button and gave Hongjoong a surprised look.

“Trust me when I say my wrists will not be sufficient for you.” Seonghwa replied matter of factly.

“Nonsense.” Hongjoong scoffed. “Unless you have like a non-existent pulse or something, it’ll be fine!”

Hongjoong quickly approached him and roughly took hold of his wrist, turning over his arm and pushing up the sleeve of his shirt to expose the soft flesh underneath. Carefully placing three fingers over the visible veins Hongjoong attempted to gauge his pulse. It was incredibly hard to actually find. Fuck. He was right. Hongjoong quickly let go of Seonghwa’s wrist with another frustrated huff.

“Alright, neck it is.” Hongjoong reluctantly conceded as he ran his hands anxiously through his hair. “But you gotta tell me  _ as soon as _ you start feeling woozy or faint or anything, okay?”

Seonghwa nodded and gave a reassuring hum.

Hongjoong frantically surveyed the small living space they shared as his hunger began to mount. He carefully led Seonghwa over to the bare wall of their tiny kitchen, gently backing him up against it while carefully looking him over, eyes focusing on Seonghwa’s neck.

“Ugh you’re too damn tall! This won’t work.” Hongjoong grumbled.

If he had wanted to drink from Seonghwa’s neck while they were standing, Seonghwa would have to crouch awkwardly which would be detrimental to him if he accidentally passed out. Conversely Hongjoong would have had to stand on his tiptoes which could end up hurting Seonghwa if either were to lose their balance. Their height difference was just enough that it just simply wouldn’t work.

“Would you prefer me to sit somewhere instead?” Seonghwa offered.

“Hmm yeah that might work.” Hongjoong replied as Seonghwa made his way to one of the kitchen chairs.

Once Seonghwa was seated, he began to further loosen his shirt collar, pulling it down until a scandalous amount of collarbone was exposed. He also made sure to remove the small black choker he had been wearing, carefully tucking in it one of his pant pockets. 

Hongjoong circled him like a wild animal circling their prey, hurriedly trying to find the best point of access. He couldn’t bite from behind as it was too awkward of an angle, he would have to tackle it from the front. But the only way to do so was to literally sit in Seonghwa’s lap. 

A shudder went up Hongjoong’s spine at the thought of having to be so intimately close to someone he barely knew but at the same time feeding off someone he had enough of a connection with that they were definitely no longer strangers. He let out a long, mildly flustered sigh as Seonghwa sat there watching him intently.

“Do you, uh, mind if I, um…” Hongjoong stuttered out, motioning to Seonghwa’s lap.

“Do whatever you need to do to make yourself comfortable.” Seonghwa said overly calmly.

Hongjoong took a large gulp as he cautiously straddled Seonghwa’s legs, lowering himself carefully onto Seonghwa’s lap and taking a firm grip on Seonghwa’s shoulders. Seonghwa’s body felt so incredibly warm beneath him. If he had a heartbeat, Hongjoong’s heart would have been absolutely racing as he unintentionally met Seonghwa’s gaze, quickly looking away to only focus on the plump-looking veins that ran down the side of Seonghwa’s neck. 

The sound of Seonghwa’s heartbeat was terrifyingly calm compared to Hongjoong’s near-frenzied state.

“Don’t-don’t get any weird ideas.” Hongjoong sputtered as he leaned in closer.

Seonghwa just gave a calm hum. 

Hongjoong could literally smell Seonghwa at this point and it was overwhelming his senses. It was as if his blood was calling to him from beneath his skin as the floral smell of Seonghwa’s shampoo filled his nose.

“I’m gonna do it now, alright?” Hongjoong said, taking another nervous gulp.

Seonghwa just gave another small hum.

Hongjoong tilted Seonghwa’s head gently to the side, fully exposing the side of his neck. He leaned in close until his lips were hovering mere millimetres from Seonghwa’s flesh. Hesitating slightly, he listened closely to Seonghwa’s heartbeat. It had sped up ever so slightly. Was he scared? Maybe Seonghwa actually was human after all, Hongjoong’s thoughts scoffed. 

Ever so slowly Hongjoong bared his fangs, his mouth salivating wildly over the prospect of fresh blood. In an instant he had plunged his fangs into the soft, warm flesh.

Seonghwa let out a small, startled gasp when Hongjoong bit down. His heart leapt in his chest as he could feel Hongjoong take a deep pull of blood accompanied by the bite of the metal brace brackets pressing against his skin.

Hongjoong let out a long satisfied hum as he gulped down the warm blood. Seonghwa’s blood was the best thing he had tasted in years. Absolutely nothing compared to blood straight from the source and Hongjoong had been living off the vampire equivalent of TV dinners for years now. The strong metallic tang of the blood was intoxicating and it left Hongjoong craving more will every pull. The more he drank, the more a warm, tingly feeling spread throughout his body. It was as if the natural magic within Seonghwa gave his blood an added kick, making it even more irresistible.

Hongjoong took another deep pull as he shuffled closer. Seonghwa’s eyes momentarily rolled into the back of his head and he let out a low groan. Squirming slightly beneath the young vampire, his fingers trailed up the back of Hongjoong’s shirt in search of something to grasp onto. 

Hongjoong hadn’t even noticed how tightly he had pressed himself against Seonghwa, so much so that he could literally feel Seonghwa’s heart beating in his own chest. Hongjoong gripped even tighter onto Seonghwa’s shoulders as he pushed himself up ever so slightly to take yet another pull of the sweet crimson nectar that was Seonghwa’s blood.

“Hongjoong?” Seonghwa said quietly. “Hongjoong — _ nnghh _ — you’re hurting me.”

Hongjoong immediately snapped out of his momentary delirium and frantically pulled away from Seonghwa. He instinctively licked the remaining blood from his lips as Seonghwa carefully reached up and placed a hand over his bloody neck, giving a small grimace in pain. 

“Did I overdo it?! Did I take too much?! I’m sorry!” Hongjoong sputtered out as he wiped a small dribble of blood off his chin with the back of his hand.

“No, no, you were ...fine. It was just your nails.” Seonghwa murmured as Hongjoong looked down at Seonghwa’s shoulders to see a few small drops of blood seeping through the fabric of his shirt where he had inadvertently dug in his nails a little too tightly.

“Ahhh Seonghwa I’m so sorry!” Hongjoong cried as he looked at his over bloody fingernails with disdain.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ll heal up in no time.” Seonghwa said with a bit of a weak laugh. “But everything else felt lovely.”

“Wait, you _ liked _ that?” Hongjoong retorted with a raised eyebrow as he awkwardly shuffled off of Seonghwa’s lap.

Seonghwa gave a small hum in confirmation. “It wasn’t all that bad. I barely felt a thing.”

“You’re just saying that to make me less self-conscious…” Hongjoong said, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

“Maybe I am.” Seonghwa said with a small laugh as he slowly got to his feet.

Seonghwa muttered something under his breath and lowered his hand from his neck. The bite marks had all but vanished from his skin.

“There, good as new again.” He said softly. “Now if you don’t mind me, I need to get back to studying.”

Hongjoong quickly nodded before Seonghwa turned away and began buttoning up the collar of his shirt once more.

“Um Seonghwa?” Hongjoong called sheepishly.

Seonghwa momentarily paused and looked back over his shoulder at him.

“Thanks, uh, for everything.”

Seonghwa gave a kind smile before he retreated to his bedroom and quietly closed the door behind him. As soon the coast was clear, Hongjoong carefully licked the remaining smatterings of delicious blood from his fingernails. Conversely, as soon as Seonghwa was out of sight from Hongjoong he leaned heavily against the door and slid down to the floor, pressing his legs tightly together as he did so.

His emotions finally began to overwhelm him and his chest heaved as he took deep breaths in an attempt to stay calm. It had taken every ounce of physical and mental control not to completely melt under Hongjoong’s touch but he couldn’t understand why. He barely knew Hongjoong. They had barely been living together for several weeks. It’s not like they had any sort of deeper personal connection. But Hongjoong’s bite was one of the most unexpected  _ sensations _ he had ever experienced. Were all vampire bites like this?!

Shuffling over to his desk and grabbing one of his medical texts, Seonghwa frantically went flipping through the pages until he came across the passage he was looking for:

_ When a vampire feeds on a human, the enzymes present in their saliva tend to produce a mild numbing effect around the bite area when they come in contact with the host’s blood. Oftentimes hosts experience bouts of dizziness after allowing a vampire to feed from them due to this numbing effect combined with the total volume of blood extracted. It is believed that this numbing effect is primarily used to keep the subject at ease and to prevent nearby muscles from constricting and restricting the flow of blood. In some studies however, it has been discovered that approximately 0.8% of the human population do not experience the numbing effect and instead experience increased levels of dopamine and beta-endorphins leading to intense feelings of euphoria and pleasure similar to sexual stimulation. _

“Oh… Oh no.” Seonghwa gasped out, immediately clamping a hand over his mouth while slowly looking over his shoulder at his closed door, hearing Hongjoong shuffling about on the other side.


	3. Bad Kitty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forewarning: Story contains some critters in temporary distress.

A loud crash and the sound of shattering of glass came from the living room and Seonghwa’s focus was immediately pulled out of his book.

“Hongjoong?” Seonghwa called, his bedroom door having been left open but the majority of the rest of the suite was just barely out of view.

There were a series of thumping sounds and few scuffling noises but otherwise there was no response.

“Hongjoong is everything alright?” Seonghwa called again.

He carefully earmarked the book and headed out into their shared living space. He had barely set foot in the room when his eyes started to notice the chaotic scene unfolding in front of him. The first thing he saw was the knocked over side table and a shattered glass on the floor, its reddish-brown contents slowly seeping into the carpet. A set of earbuds and Hongjoong’s notebooks were spread across the adjacent couch as he had hunkered down to do some studying there but there was no sign of him anywhere.

“Hongjoong?” Seonghwa called once more, a hint of concern in his voice.

As he rounded the corner to their small, partially enclosed kitchen a flurry of movement streaked past him. It took him a couple seconds to process what was happening and because of this his reaction was too slow to put an immediate stop to it.

“Dal no!” Seonghwa yelled but it was a split second too late as he watched Dal, his black cat familiar, launch itself off a cabinet and swat something out of the air.

Dal landed softly on its feet on the tile floor, roughly pinning down another small creature. Under its paw frantically squirmed a small vampire bat; Hongjoong. Hongjoong let out a couple frightened squeaks as he managed to wriggle free from the cat’s grasp, flying back up into the air and quickly circling Seonghgwa’s head in an attempt to find some sort of cover. Hongjoong frantically clung to Seonghwa’s shirt sleeve, trembling nervously against him as he scrambled up onto his shoulder. 

But Dal was a centuries-old feline demon and was merely playing with his prey, a prey that in his mind was now threatening his master. Dal turned towards Seonghwa, glowing eyes fixed upon Hongjoong. Seonghwa barely had time to react, dropping to the floor as Dal pounced towards him, sending Hongjoong flying back into the air once more.

“Hongjoong please calm down!” Seonghwa cried as he watched the pursuit continue. “Dal stop this right now! Leave Hongjoong alone!”

Hongjoong was fast but Dal was faster. In a split second he had caught Hongjoong between his teeth and ripped him out of the air, clamping down tightly onto Hongjoong’s furry little body as he landed back on the floor and sprinted into the living room. Hongjoong let out a terrified screech as Seonghwa scrambled to his feet, chasing after them.

"Dal you put him down this instant!” Seonghwa yelled but Dal just looked at him with a displeased yet dismissive expression as Hongjoong struggled in his grip, his one wing having become pinned at a painfully awkward angle beneath him.

“I mean it!” Seonghwa growled as he began to invoke a large magic circle at his feet.

Dal let out a low growl as he slowly opened his mouth and Hongjoong went skittering across the floor. Seonghwa was quick to put himself between Dal and Hongjoong and with a small poof Hongjoong had changed back into his human form, huddled up against the back wall of the room.

“Fuck. Stupid cat!” Hongjoong cursed while nursing an evidently injured shoulder. “I don’t try to eat  _ you! _ ”

Dal gave an angry hiss before running off and hiding beneath the kitchen table.

“Hongjoong! Are you okay!” Seonghwa said, quickly turning to face him, his hands nervously hovering over Hongjoong trying to figure out the extent of his injuries.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. You can back off.” Hongjoong grumbled. “I’ll heal in a few minutes. Just keep that damn demon cat away from me.”

“What happened?!” Seonghwa asked.

“Ugh I guess I was too invested in my note taking and had my music turned up too loud allowing Dal to sneak up on me. He knocked over my drink, completely startling me and poof! Suddenly I’m a bat.” Hongjoong explained begrudgingly, giving a groan as he gave his shoulder a slow exaggerated roll.

“At least let me make sure you’re okay?” Seonghwa said in a pleading tone as he knelt down in front of Hongjoong. “Dal’s bite can be horribly venomous…”

“You seriously own a venomous cat demon as a pet?!” Hongjoong huffed.

“He’s not a pet, he’s my familiar.” Seonghwa explained calmly. “Now please let me take a look at your wounds.”

They bickered back and forth for a bit until Seonghwa finally asserted that it was imperative he at least  _ see _ the damage, for his conscience’s sake.

“Fine.” Hongjoong said with a sigh as he lifted up the hem of his oversized t-shirt revealing his ghostly pale skin.

Seonghwa couldn’t believe what he saw. There were several circular pink marks that looked like they could have been bite marks on his flesh but they were fading by the second almost to the point that they had nearly disappeared completely despite only a couple minutes having elapsed.

"Incredible.” Seonghwa gasped. “You’re nearly completely healed already!”

“Yeah, I told you. Vampire. Can heal myself.” Hongjoong replied in a tone as he pulled his shirt back down and tightly crossed his arms in front of him.

Over the next half hour or so Seonghwa worked on cleaning up the huge mess Dal had created while Hongjoong sat curled up on the couch, knees tucked up tightly against his chest and drinking from a blood bag as if he was nursing a Capri Sun.

“Dal, came here please.” Seonghwa called sternly from the living room.

The cat was very reluctant to obey knowing very well that it was in trouble but eventually it poked its head out of the kitchen, its eyes darting between Seonghwa and Hongjoong. Seonghwa beckoned it to come closer and it slowly slinked into the room, carefully sitting at Seonghwa’s feet.

“Dal you have been a very bad kitty.” Seonghwa scolded.

Dal let out a low grumble.

“You do  _ not _ attack Hongjoong, not matter what form he is in, you hear me?” Seonghwa continued. “If you do I will be forced to place a binding spell on you.”

Dal gave a disgruntled mew in acknowledgement.

“Now go tell Hongjoong you’re sorry.” Seonghwa said, motioning his chin towards Hongjoong curled up on the couch.

Dal slowly strode towards the couch, jumping up on the cushion beside Hongjoong. Hongjoong gave a bit of a flinch and quickly shuffled as far away as he could from the cat.

“He won’t hurt you.” Seonghwa said reassuringly.

Honjoong didn’t say anything, still nursing his blood bag. He slowly reached his hand out towards the cat. Dal took a couple curious sniffs before pressing the top of his head against Hongjoong’s palm followed by affectionately rubbing his chin up against his hand. Hongjoong gave him a couple quick scratches and Dal began purring loudly before cautiously padding up onto Hongjoong’s lap and curling up there to sleep.

Seonghwa smiled fondly at the sweet scene in front of him while Hongjoong continued to internally scream for a solid twenty minutes before finally relaxing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Dal actually means moon.


	4. Demon Summoning 101

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Story rating: T with very mild spice

When Hongjoong returned back to the dorm after his night classes were finished he was quite surprised to see the small suite in a much different state than when he had left. Seonghwa had pushed all the furniture they had in the living room—which admittedly wasn’t very much—to the sides of the room and a large magic circle had been drawn on the carpet in what looked like some sort of chalky substance with dozens of large candles scattered about. Hongjoong hovered in the doorway for a minute, craning his neck to look around while trying to process everything.

“Um, Seonghwa?” Hongjoong called into the suite.

Seonghwa quickly came striding out of his bedroom carrying a large leather-bound book in his arms and was scribbling some small notes in the margin of one of the pages.

“Come in, come in.” Seonghwa beckoned. “Sorry for the mess, I’m just practicing some spells, nothing to worry about.

“And here I thought with all these candles it was some really weird setup for a date.” Hongjoong joked in a sarcastic tone.

Cautiously taking a step into the room, he slipped off his shoes and gently closed the suite door behind him. He slowly edged around the circumference of the magic circle in his sock feet, pressing his back to the wall until he reached their haphazardly situated couch. Throwing down his book bag, he flopped down on the cushions, looking curiously over the different insignia in the circle. Some of them looked vaguely familiar but since he wasn’t any type of magic user, the majority were completely foreign to him.

“So, uh, what exactly are you doing with, uh, all this?” Hongjoong asked, making vague hand motions at the intricate magic circle.

“Trying my hand at summoning.” Seonghwa said in a preoccupied tone. “You’re welcome to watch if you’d like. I promise it’s perfectly safe.”

Seonghwa casually licked the tip of his finger as he flipped between pages of the book he was engrossed in. Hongjoong noticed Seonghwa had a small wooden wand tucked behind his ear.

“Don’t you need that for it to work?” Hongjoong gave a bit of a nod towards the wand.

Seonghwa absentmindedly reached up, feeling for the wand before hastily removing it from behind his ear and tossing it into his bedroom without another thought.

“I’m more of a hands-on learner.” Seonghwa replied with a bit of a laugh, finally looking up from his book and giving Hongjoong his full attention. “Wands are so incredibly fickle, my fingers never lead me astray.”

Seonghwa gave his fingers a light twiddle and Hongjoong just gave a small huff wondering if Seonghwa was aware of how oddly sexual his statement might have come across as. He slowly pulled up his legs so he could sit cross-legged on the couch as Seonghwa got to work with his summoning practice. Unfortunately Hongjoong quickly became rather bored as not much was actually happening other than Seonghwa pacing back and forth around the circle, triple checking insignia and making modifications to his spell book for quite some time. He glumly leaned on his hand as Seonghwa made another lap of the room while mumbling to himself.

“So… what exactly are you trying to summon?” Hongjoong asked with a bored pout.

“Just a demon.” Seonghwa replied nonchalantly.

Hongjoong immediately sat upright in surprise at how casually Seonghwa had said _ just _ a demon.

“Don’t worry, I’m modifying things to only summon a class 2 or lower demon so they won’t be any threat to you or I.” Seonghwa continued when he looked up and saw the concerned expression warring on Hongjoong’s face. “Comparatively speaking, many of our classmates are class 1 or 2 demons or half-demons anyways. It’s perfectly fine.”

“Isn’t it a little counterproductive to have to spend so long perfecting a magic circle like this?” Hongjoong grumbled.

“Oh no, this is completely normal! It’s like this so that once I perfect the spell I can take a type of magical imprint of it and then I can just call forth the circle in an instant as needed in the future.” Seonghwa explained. “The preparation is the most critical step.”

“Ahhh really.” Hongjoong commented, pretending to understand what Seonghwa was going on about.

“But…” Seonghwa said with a bit of a relieved sigh. “I think we are finally ready to test this out.”

Hongjoong excitedly wiggled towards the edge of the couch cushion as Seonghwa flipped back a couple pages in his book and took a deep breath to prepare himself. As soon as Seonghwa started reciting the words from the book the insignia contained within the magic circle began to glow. As Seonghwa continued, the lights in the small suite began to flicker and the dishes on the kitchen counter began to rattle ever so slightly.

“Seonghwa…” Hongjoong said in a concerned tone as the lights began to flicker much more intensely to the point where the lights were going out completely for extended periods of time and the floor seemed to be shaking beneath them.

Seonghwa’s voice became more commanding as the spell progressed and Hongjoong dug his fingernails into the couch cushion as if hanging on for dear life. The light emitting from the magic circle quickly became almost unbearable and Hongjoong instinctively flinched away.

But in an instant it was all over and the suite was completely back to normal. Except for one thing: the being now sitting in the middle of the circle.

Oddly enough he looked human, maybe even around the same age as them. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, arms outstretched as if he had been playing an invisible piano. When he realized he was no longer where he had been before, his eyes went wild.

“What the—Nooo!” He cried out in surprise. “No! NO, NO, NO!”

He shot up onto his feet, looking around in an agitated panic and pulling a computer headset off his ears, snapping it around his neck. Hongjoong quickly started to notice peculiar things about this person, the first being silver hair peeking out from underneath the black beanie he was wearing, the second being the large fluffy fox tail now angrily swishing back and forth behind him.

“Seonghwa what the fuck!” He yelled. “I was in the middle of a game!”

“San?!” Seonghwa exclaimed, almost as equally surprised to see him.

Apparently they were acquainted.

The boy gave a frustrated cry as he dropped back to his knees, baring a small pair of fangs and letting out a low growl. He aggressively jerked the microphone from the headset up to his mouth.

“Shut up Yunho! I can still hear you! Stop laughing! This doesn’t count.” He yelled into the mic. “Seonghwa decided to just yeet me into his damn living room. Interference! I demand a rematch!”

“I’m terribly sorry San.” Seonghwa said in an apologetic tone, snapping the large leather-bound book shut. “I was trying to summon a weak class 2 demon, I wasn’t expecting to summon  _ you _ .”

San let out another low growl as he twisted his clawed fingers into the fabric of his pants.

“First you pull me away from my game and now you’re calling me weak?!” He blurted out. “Just because I don’t have all my tails yet doesn’t mean—”

“No that’s not what I meant at all!” Seonghwa said, cutting him off. “I didn’t mean to offend you! Next time I try practicing demon summoning I’ll message the group chat to give you all a heads up so that something like this doesn’t happen again. To be completely honest, I had not fully expected the summoning to work.”

San hesitantly accepted Seonghwa’s compromise and sat back on the floor, his tail still flicking back and forth.

Hongjoong had been intently watching from the couch the entire time but had otherwise kept silent. He had no idea what to make of this strange person who Seonghwa had accidentally summoned.

“The least you could do is let me raid your fridge.” San grumbled as he pushed himself back up to his feet.

“There’s some leftover pizza in the fridge, help yourself.” Seonghwa said, erasing a portion of the magic circle with his foot so San was free to roam about the suite. 

San made a beeline for their small kitchen and Hongjoong took this opportunity to voice his concern.

“Seonghwa, he has a  _ tail _ .” Hongjoong whispered a little too loudly.

“Well yes, he’s a fox demon after all.” Seonghwa replied nonchalantly as he continued to erase the magic circle with his foot.

San came striding back into the living room, face full of pizza while holding another slice in his hand.

“Who’s this guy?” San asked in a rather dry tone while swallowing down the first slice of pizza.

“That’s Hongjoong, my roommate.”

Before Seonghwa could say anymore, San had made his way across the living room and had crowded into Hongjoong’s personal space. He began circling him curiously, tail flicking happily as he went. Taking a few exaggerated sniffs of the air around him, San’s piercing gaze focused on Hongjoong as he took another bite of pizza.

“You smell ...dead.” He stated bluntly through a mouth full of food.

“San!” Seonghwa hissed at him.

Hongjoong let out a disgruntled huff, having taken extreme offense to that statement as being compared to a corpse was considered quite derogatory towards vampires. But San was not done just yet.

“But… you also smell of Seonghwa?” San narrowed his eyes and gave a suspicious look between the two of them.

Hongjoong’s mind went into a panic thinking about how many days it had been since he had fed from Seonghwa. Was he really able to smell that on him? Hongjoong had no real knowledge of fox demons or their abilities.

“What the fuck is your deal?” Was the only thing Hongjoong could think to blurt out.

As he spoke, San immediately spotted Hongjoong’s tiny fangs and braces, grabbing Hongjoong’s chin and forcing his mouth open to get a better look.

“You’re a vampire?” He huffed. “That explains things. But with braces?  _ Cute. _ ”

San cracked a sly grin and gave Hongjoong’s chin a light flick with his claw-like fingernail. Hongjoong was quick to swat his arm away, giving him an angry glare as he did so.

“San leave him be.” Seonghwa said in a slightly preoccupied yet scolding tone.

San playfully stuck his tongue out and Hongjoong before shoving the rest of the pizza into his mouth, intentionally showing off his own fangs as if in an attempt to assert some sort of dominance over him.

“Anyways I should be going, I need to go kick Yunho’s ass.” San declared casually while turning back towards the door.

As he approached Seonghwa he paused momentarily, looking back over his shoulder at Hongjoong. 

“Is there anything else?” Seonghwa said with a raise of an eyebrow, noticing San’s hesitation.

“Yeah, just one more thing.” San said in a sly voice.

Gently placing a hand on the back of Seonghwa’s neck, San swiftly pulled him in closer before shoving his tongue down Seonghwa’s throat in an unexpected yet passionate kiss. Seonghwa seemed a little thrown off, giving a startled grunt when San caught him by surprise but otherwise he did not make any sort of protest over San’s advances. In fact, it seemed like he actually leaned into it slightly before San quickly pulled away, leaving Seonghwa standing there blinking in disbelief. 

San took one last side-eyed glance over at Hongjoong, catching him sitting there with his jaw on the floor before opening up the suite door and disappearing out into the hall without another word.

“What the hell was that about? He your boyfriend or something?” Hongjoong grumbled.

“No. No, no, no. Definitely not. No.” Seonghwa stuttered out, wiping his bottom lip with the back of his hand.

“That was one too many no’s.” Hongjoong scoffed.

“San is just… San.” Seonghwa said with a bit of a nervous laugh. “I have known him for quite some time and that’s just the nature of a fox demon. They’re kind of a very petty and jealous breed. I think he might actually feel a little threatened by your presence.”

“Interesting.” Hongjoong muttered with a bit of a grin.

This entire ordeal had left Hongjoong with quite a lot to think about.


	5. Swarm of Emotions

“Hey Seonghwa?” Hongjoong called nervously from outside of his bedroom door after giving it a light knock.

“Come in!” Seonghwa replied in a chipper tone from the other side.

Hongjoong took a deep breath. He was a vampire. He didn’t  _ need _ to breathe but he sure as hell needed to calm himself down for what he was about to do. He reached out to slowly turn the door handle, hand shaking slightly as he did so. His mind was a distracting mess of thoughts as he opened the door just a crack causing him to become quite startled when Dal came sprinting out of the room towards him.

“Dammit Dal.” Hongjoong cursed under his breath as the familiar playfully came trotting up to him, happily purring and weaving between his legs. “Not now. I need to talk to Seonghwa. Alone.”

Dal let out a small whine and stalked off towards the kitchen, flicking its tail and it did so. Hongjoong had to take a moment to collect himself once more before finally entering the room. He carefully closed the door behind him to ensure Dal stayed out in the shared living space. He couldn’t take any chances.

“What’s up?” Seonghwa asked as he closed his books and swiveled around in his chair to face him.

Hongjoong was a little thrown off by how colloquial Seonghwa was suddenly being and anxiously approached him, nervously fidgeting with the rings he wore on his fingers as he did so.

“I have, uh, something I’d like to talk to you about.” Hongjoong said quietly.

Seonghwa’s warm smile immediately melted into a much more emotionally neutral tone, his mind immediately expecting some sort of bad news.

“So we’ve been living together for awhile now…” Hongjoong began, eyes fixed on the floor as he kicked idly at the carpeting in his sock feet. “And you’ve been so kind to me and you’ve done so much to help and comfort me throughout, uh, throughout  _ everything _ , no matter how weird things get. And I, uh, I just wanted to say… that… I think I like you.”

Seonghwa gave a couple surprised blinks at Hongjoong's confession but otherwise his outward expression did not change. However, on the inside it was a completely different story. His heart had leapt into his throat at Hongjoong’s words and the fact that Hongjoong most likely would be able to detect the change in his heart rate only caused his heart to begin to beat even faster. He had gone into a full internal panic and blush was already beginning to creep up onto his cheeks, reddening them by the second.

“I mean,” Hongjoong continued, still not making eye contact. “I  _ really _ like you.”

Hongjoong hesitantly looked up from the floor to meet Seonghwa’s gaze, his stomach tying itself in knots. He expected a look of shock or disgust from Seonghwa, but for some reason Seonghwa showed almost no initial reaction at all except for his flushed cheeks.

The edges of Seonghwa’s lips slowly began to curl upwards ever so slightly into a small smile as he rose to his feet. Hongjoong’s mouth had become uncomfortably dry and he took an exaggerated gulp at Seonghwa's advances, fearing for the absolute worst.

“Thank you for telling me.” He said calmly, his smile widening as he took several steps towards Hongjoong. “This is such a relief because I have to admit, I really like you as well.”

“Wait, really?!” Hongjoong blurted out, his nervous mood suddenly doing a full 180 as he began to beam with happiness to the point that his small fangs were visible.

Seonghwa nodded while looking off to the side.

“I’ve actually been trying to drop hints over the past few weeks.” He laughed, running a hand absentmindedly through his own hair. “But it appears I was being much too subtle.”

“I’m sort of  _ really _ oblivious when it comes to those sorts of things so don’t blame yourself.” Hongjoong laughed.

Seonghwa’s eyes trailed back over to Hongjoong, his gaze having become absolutely smoldering.

“Can... I kiss you?” Seonghwa asked in a quiet voice.

Hongjoong frantically nodded his head, his mind fracturing into a hundred flustered thoughts.

Seonghwa slowly ran his hand up the side of Hongjoong’s neck before letting it rest just below Hongjoong’s jawline. If Hongjoong’s body had contained a normal circulatory system his heart would have been beating out of his chest and his face would have been burning bright red. But even so, he could still feel a sweet heat slowly creeping up his spine.

He closed the gap between them until their noses were almost touching, pausing momentarily as he looked deeply into Hongjoong’s eyes. Hongjoong could feel Seonghwa’s quickened breath against his skin and the now familiar floral scent of Seonghwa’s shampoo filled Hongjoong’s nostrils. What had once seemed like a rather mundane smell had suddenly become completely intoxicating to Hongjoong and every second that Seonghwa lingered, the more intimacy Hongjoong craved until he was almost vibrating in anticipation. 

Seonghwa’s eyes flitted down to Hongjoong’s lips before looking up and meeting his gaze once more. The heat within Hongjoong was becoming more and more intense almost to an unbearable extent.

And then it happened.

Seonghwa leaned down and lightly pressed his lips against Hongjoong’s in a soft kiss. But what would have normally been a very sweet and mild gesture for anyone else was immediately too much for Hongjoong’s already overstimulated body to handle. Every fibre of his being had become overwhelmed causing him to immediately burst into a flurry of bats, scattering around the room before materializing again in his human form several feet away from Seonghwa. 

Seonghwa stumbled forward when Hongjoong had suddenly dematerialized, having momentarily lost his balance. He slowly righted himself again while looking over at Hongjoong with a very concerned expression.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry!” Hongjoong squeaked out before quickly covering his mouth with his hands and giving Seonghwa a look of embarrassment mixed with utter dread.

“Wh-what exactly just happened?” Seonghwa asked calmly, looking somewhat bewildered at what he had just witnessed. “Did… I do something?”

“No, no it’s not your fault. It’s me. It’s all me.” Hongjoong sputtered out, frantically waving his hands in a dismissive manner to Seonghwa’s question.

Hongjoong shuffled over and flopped down on Seonghwa’s bed, doubling over and burying his head in his hands. Seonghwa carefully approached him, sitting down next to him and giving his back a gentle, reassuring rub.

“You know when I get tired or startled and I sometimes turn into a bat?” Hongjoong began to say as he slowly convinced himself to face Seonghwa.

Seonghwa gave a small hum in confirmation as he lazily rubbed small figure-eights on Hongjoong’s back. 

“Well, when I get really flustered I turn into a _whole_ _bunch_ of bats.” Hongjoong immediately started to word-vomit about his odd condition. “It’s a stupid defense mechanism some vampires have against predators and the other bats are merely an illusion but obviously you’re not a predator so I don’t know why my body is reacting like this but I guess I just worked myself up way too much before coming to talk to you and arrrgh! This is so embarrassing!”

Hongjoong doubled over once more, frustratedly ruffling this hair.

“It’s not embarrassing at all.” Seonghwa said with a small laugh. “It’s actually kind of endearing.”

Hongjoong’s internal dialogue was screaming “Do not change into a bat! Do not change into a bat! Do not change into a bat!” repeatedly in an attempt to calm himself down but somehow every word that came out of Seonghwa’s mouth only made him even more flustered.

“Listen, I really like you and I really want to be close to you but I—”

“It’s fine, we just need to work up to intimacy then. We will take it nice and slow.” Seonghwa said in a frustratingly soothing voice. “You can tell me if anything’s becoming too much to handle and I’ll back off right away. But if you  _ can _ handle things then we can try turning it up a notch. Baby steps, alright?” 

Hongjoong gave him a small nod in response and slowly righted himself again, letting out a long sigh.

“Do you need a minute to calm down?” Seonghwa asked.

Hongjoong just nodded once again.

Several minutes passed before Hongjoong spoke again. 

“Okay. I think I’m ready.” He said in a slightly nervous tone that was lacking any and all confidence.

Seonghwa gently took Hongjoong’s small hands in his, giving them a firm squeeze before slowly leaning in and softly kissing him once more. Hongjoong’s body shuddered at Seonghwa’s touch, desperately chasing that wonderful heat he had felt before but knowingly unable to do so without losing control. It took every amount of concentration to keep himself in his human form but ever so slowly he began to relax and he even started to lean into the kiss.

Watching carefully over Hongjoong’s reactions, Seonghwa slowly pressed his lips open, kissing him a little deeper in small, languid movements. Hongjoong gave a long, pleased hum and Seonghwa slowly began to pick up the pace.

Seonghwa took Hongjoong’s hands and carefully wrapped his arms around his neck before reaching down and placing his hands on the small of Hongjoong’s back, slowly pulling him closer until he was resting upon his lap. Hongjoong’s confidence had finally begun to peak and he was now the one setting the pace. His kisses had started to become more frantic as if he was desperately and carelessly chasing that lustful heat. His tongue began to lick sloppily into Seonghwa’s mouth as his fingers twirled at the loose hairs at the base of Seonghwa’s neck but Seonghwa had started to become mildly concerned that Hongjoong was getting too eager.

No sooner had the thought crossed Seonghwa’s mind that suddenly Hongjoong froze and pulled away, closing his eyes tightly. 

“No, no, no, no… wait, wait, wait.” Hongjoong muttered out.

Seonghwa could feel his hands trembling against his neck and he could tell that Hongjoong had pushed himself a little too far and was desperately trying to hold himself together.

“Shhh it’s okay, just take some deep breaths and calm yourself down.” Seonghwa whispered reassuringly, gentling petting over Hongjoong’s hair. “We can slow it back down, no need to rush. Baby steps, remember?”

“I’m just so… exhausted all of a sudden.” Hongjoong breathed out.

“You’re expending a lot of energy. Would it help if you fed?” Seonghwa asked.

Hongjoong furiously shook his head. 

“No, that would just overstimulate me. I can do this. It’s fine.” He said in a determined tone.

However Hongjoong’s strength did not last much longer. All it took was Seonghwa planting a single kiss upon his neck before everything became all too overwhelming and with a small poof he had changed into a bat once more. Seonghwa was quick to react and gently caught him in his hands, carefully cupping his little body in his palms. Hongjoong let out a sad little chirp and frustratedly teethed along the side of Seonghwa’s pointer finger.

“It’s okay, JwiJwi. You tried your best.” Seonghwa said reassuringly, bringing Hongjoong up his face and nuzzling his nose gently against Hongjoong’s tiny snout.

Hongjoong gave him a playfully little lick on the nose. Seonghwa let out a small laugh before planting a soft kiss atop Hongjoong’s fuzzy little head as Hongjoong vibrated in his hands.

Gently Seonghwa lowered Hongjoong, placing him carefully on his lap. Hongjoong gave a series of tired chirps as he wandered in a small circle before flattening down on Seonghwa’s thigh letting out what sounded like the tiniest sigh.

In another poof, Hongjoong was back to normal again. He leaned heavily against Seonghwa, placing his head against his chest while listening to the soothing sound of Seonghwa’s heartbeat.

“I’m sorry I’m like this.” Hongjoong said in a melancholy tone. “But thank you for putting up with me.”

“No need to apologize, just rest.” Seonghwa whispered as he gently pulled Hongjoong in tighter.

Hongjoong gently nuzzled his cheek against Seonghwa’s chest before letting his mental exhaustion overcome him, slowly drifting off to sleep in his arms.

“Oh JwiJwi, what am I to do with you?” Seonghwa softly sighed with an endearing smile.


	6. Fly Me To The Moon

It was late after class and Hongjoong was making the long, dark trek back to the dorms alone. He was about halfway back, deep in thought, earbuds in and music blaring when Seonghwa silently swooped down beside him. He began to cautiously follow him for a couple feet before Hongjoong was alerted to his presence, startling immediately and nearly jumping a foot in the air. But Seonghwa wasn’t merely walking along beside him, he was floating, elegantly perched with his legs crossed atop a large broomstick with a small picnic basket hanging from the front.

“Seonghwa  _ please _ .” Hongjoong said with an exasperated wheeze and he ripped his earbuds out. “If I had a beating heart, you would have given me a heart attack!”

“Sorry I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.” Seonghwa replied with a small laugh that he tried his best to hide behind his hand. “I sometimes forget how easily you startle. But on the bright side, you currently aren’t a bat so I think that’s a big step forward. I’m proud of you!”

Hongjoong grumbled a small “thanks” as he kept trudging along, Seonghwa silently following along beside him, giving off a mischievous cheshire cat-like aura.

“So, uh, what are you doing out here?” Hongjoong asked, side-eyeing the large broom.

“Came to pick you up!” Seonghwa said with a smile, kicking his leg up and over the handle to straddle the broom as it kept a steady pace.

“Why?” Hongjoong scoffed, stopping in his tracks to face him.

“I thought I could take you somewhere fun tonight.” Seonghwa beamed, tilting up the brim of his hat.

Hongjoong seemed somewhat perplexed. “What? On that?” He gestured towards the broom.

Seonghwa gave a quick nod and a hum in affirmation. He offered his hand to Hongjoong but Hongjoong just looked reluctantly between Seonghwa and the broom.

“I’m not sure—”

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun!” Seonghwa retorted with a small but devastating pout.

Hongjoong let out a long sigh before slowly taking hold of Seonghwa’s hand, allowing himself to be guided carefully up onto the broom behind him. Hongjoong carefully straddled the broom handle, scooching forward a little before wrapping his arms gently around Seonghwa’s waist. Seonghwa cracked a shy smile, blush creeping up on his cheeks at Hongjoong’s gentle touch.

“Hold on tight.” Seonghwa instructed before giving a forceful kick off the ground, launching them up into the air at an alarmingly fast rate.

Hongjoong immediately intensified his grip, pressing himself tightly against Seonghwa’s back while letting out a small yelp in surprise as they quickly ascended into the cool night sky. After they had been flying for a couple minutes, Hongjoong slowly allowed himself to loosen the death-grip he had on the front of Seonghwa’s shirt.

“Ah the air feels wonderful tonight!” Seonghwa exclaimed as they sailed through the air, over the twinkling lights of the city below. “Hongjoong, look at how beautiful the view is!”

“Hmm no thanks!” Hongjoong squeaked out, pressing his forehead against Seonghwa’s shoulder blade so that he wouldn’t have to look down.

It was quite ironic that a vampire who had the ability to change into a bat at will was also terrified of heights. He didn’t know why he was so scared—it's not like a fall could kill him—but it took him a lot longer than he would care to admit to finally feel the slightest bit at ease.

They had been flying for what felt like quite some time when Hongjoong finally perked up at the smell of the fresh ocean air.

“Are we at the coast?” He asked, finally lifting up his head.

“Yeah, hold on!” Seonghwa replied, tightly holding onto his hat as they suddenly dropped several feet.

Hongjoong’s stomach did a loop as he pressed himself tightly against Seonghwa once more. 

In a matter of minutes Seonghwa had gently landed the broom at their final destination.

“We’re here.” Seonghwa said quietly as he took hold of Hongjoong’s hands, slowly peeling them away from him.

Seonghwa carefully guided Hongjoong off the broom and onto the solid ground once more. Hongjoong’s legs felt like jelly beneath him and he clung tightly onto Seonghwa’s arm until he got his bearings again. Seonghwa quickly grabbed the basket and threw the broom over his shoulder, leading Hongjoong through a small patch of trees until they came to a rock cliff face. The view was absolutely incredible. Off in the distance they could see the twinkling lights from the city across the ocean waters as the full moon shone brightly on the horizon.

“Seonghwa... this is gorgeous!” Hongjoong uttered, taking a few steps towards the edge of the cliff.

“I thought we could have a nice picnic out here. Just relax a bit. I know exams have been stressful for you so I think a night off is warranted.” Seonghwa explained as he set the broom and basket down on the ground at his feet.

Hongjoong looked back at Seonghwa, a little overwhelmed with emotions at such a kind gesture.

“Thank you.” He said in a quiet voice as Seonghwa simply smiled while setting up the picnic.

After they got seated on the large blanket Seonghwa had laid out for Hongjoong and himself, he stopped to contemplate things for a moment.

“Hmm I think something is missing…” Seonghwa hummed.

With a twirl of his fingers, a couple dozen small teal balls of light floated up into the air, helping to illuminate their surroundings just enough to give it a light, cozy atmosphere. Hongjoong was in awe watching the small balls of light lazily swirl around. It was as if they were surrounded by a bunch of fireflies lazily dancing above them.

Hongjoong shifted on the blanket, inching closer to Seonghwa until he was close enough to rest his head on Seonghwa’s shoulder as they just sat there, looking out at the view of the city off in the distance.

“I could stay like this forever.” Hongjoong said, his voice small and tired.

“We can stay here as long as you’d like. I’ve even packed some snacks for the both of us so if you get hungry, just let me know.” Seonghwa said in a calming tone, taking Hongjoong’s hand in his, linking theirs fingers.

Hongjoong hadn’t realized just how tired he was and it wasn’t long before he found his surroundings going in an out of focus as he began to nod off. He shifted once more, laying his head on Seonghwa’s lap as Seonghwa idly played with the longer hairs at the base of his neck.

His peace didn’t last long as a passing freight ship nearby loudly sounded their horn, startling him out of his sleep and in a small poof Hongjoong was a bat once more. Seonghwa gave a small laugh, quickly covering his mouth with his hand in hopes that Hongjoong wouldn’t notice. 

Within seconds Hongjoong had changed back and sat splayed on the blanked, embarrassed and slightly disoriented.

“Sorry.” He muttered. “So embarrassing.”

“I think your bat form is adorable JwiJwi.” Seonghwa said in a baby-like tone while giving Hongjoong’s cheek a small pinch.

Hongjoong quickly swatted his hand away as a cheesy grin spread across his face.

“Yeah yeah, Whatever! Let’s eat! I’m starving!” Hongjoong said in an attempt to quickly change the subject, reaching over Seonghwa to grab the picnic basket and rummage through the contents.

Hongjoong pulled out a cola for Seonghwa, casually tossing it to him before pulling out a blood bag for himself. He sat back on the blanket, ripping the corner of the bag open with his tiny fangs and nursing the contents inside with a pout. 

Seonghwa removed his wide-brimmed hat, neatly placing it to the side before he threw back the cola in a manner that could have won him half a dozen CF rolls. Hongjoong couldn’t believe how absolutely smitten he had become with this human witch.

“What must have I done in a past life to be rewarded with someone like you?” Hongjoong scoffed.

“How uncharacteristically poetic of you.” Seonghwa replied with a breathy laugh, dabbing the corner of his lip with his thumb after he had finished drinking.

“I can be sappy too sometimes, ya know!” Hongjoong grumbled as he gave Seonghwa’s shoulder a playful punch.

Seonghwa gave an over exaggerated stretch and flopped back onto the blanket, laying on his back and looking up at the stars shining brightly above them. He turned his face to the side to look over at Hongjoong and playfully patted the empty space on the blanket beside him. Hongjoong was quick to down the rest of the blood bag he had been drinking before shuffling over to him and slotting himself in comfortably at Seonghwa’s side.

And that is where they stayed for quite some time as the small orbs of light danced around them and Seonghwa pointed out each constellation, describing the meanings behind each of their names and explaining all of the detailed lore associated with them. It wasn’t long before Hongjoong’s small hums in response became fewer and far between as he slowly nodded off once more to the calming sound of Seonghwa’s voice.


	7. Spellbound

[Chat - 10:14 pm]

**Seonghwa:** Hey I know you’re in class right now but when you’re done would you be able to do me a huge favour? [PRAYING EMOJI]  
**Hongjoong:** Yeah sure.  
**Seonghwa:** On your way back to the dorm could you stop by the herbology building and pick up a small package for me? I ran into a bit of trouble while out on a job with Wooyoung and was an absolute fool and let some of my herbal stocks run low and can’t make it out there myself right now. I already called ahead so the items should be waiting for me.  
**Hongjoong:** Yeah no problem...  
**Seonghwa:** Thanks, you’re a lifesaver!  
**Hongjoong:** But… are you okay???  
**Hongjoong:** Should I skip out early?????  
**Seonghwa:** Don’t worry about me, it’s just a few minor scrapes and bruises. [WINKY EMOJI]

Hongjoong didn’t really like how Seonghwa’s message read, fearing that if it needed the aid of medicinal herbs or whatever other ingredients he was having him pick up, it probably wasn’t just ‘a few minor scrapes and bruises.’ As soon as his class was finished at 10:30pm, Hongjoong rushed out of the building and quickly made his way across campus to the small greenhouse that served as the herbology building to pick up the items for Seonghwa.

Hongjoong was somewhat surprised by how small the box that was passed off to him was but he didn’t really question it. If this is what Seonghwa had needed then so be it.

When he arrived back at their small shared apartment he had barely stepped in the door when he was quickly caught off guard.

“Seonghwa! I brought the items you wanted!” Hongjoong called as he kicked off his shoes, clutching the small cardboard box in his hands.

“Ah perfect timing as always Hongjoong!” Seonghwa called from his bedroom.

When Hongjoong looked up he immediately froze, having locked eyes with a mysterious stranger sitting on their couch. It was a young man casually perched on the couch cushions, his chin-length wavy hair hung messily in his face as he cracked a sly smile.

“Hongjoong!” The young man chirped, looking quite happy to see him.

However Hongjoong quickly averted his eyes as this young man, despite how calmly he sat there, was stark naked save for a red choker-like necklace.

“Seonghwa...?” Hongjoong called in a mildly concerned tone. “Why is there a naked stranger sitting in our living room?”

“Stranger?” The man repeated with a small huff and a pout as he pulled his legs up, hugging his knees tightly against his chest while hiding his face behind them, leaving only his eyes visible.

“Hongjoong, you know Dal.” Seonghwa said in a casual tone as he strolled back into the living room carrying one of his large books.

“Dal?!” Hongjoong blurted out as he looked back over at the naked young man. “Not looking like this I don’t! That’s Dal?! But Dal’s a cat!”

Hongjoong quickly realized that the necklace the man wore was not a choker at all but instead was a collar. Dal’s collar. The young man gave a playful smirk and wiggled his shoulders ever so slightly as if laughing to himself over how flustered Hongjoong was becoming over the whole situation.

“Technically in this form he prefers to go by Lune.” Seonghwa said in a preoccupied tone as he pulled a chair over in front of the couch and began rummaging through a box of medical supplies at his feet. “As you know he’s a centuries-old demon familiar, obviously he is not spellbound to a single form and can take on many different forms, he just prefers that of a cat most of the time.”

Hongjoong was somewhat speechless.

“Unfortunately my poor sweet boy got injured protecting me from a nasty poltergeist and needs some treatment.” Seonghwa said in a baby-like tone as he gave the underside of Dal—Lune’s chin a light flick and Lune let out a soft, contented giggle. “My powers are much more suited in treating a human form so I asked him to shift until he’s all healed up.”

It was only then that Hongjoong noticed the nasty burn mark that covered the side of Lune’s leg from his ankle up to his mid-calf. Other burn marks could be seen along the side of Lune’s forearm and the back of his hand. It looked pretty bad but Hongjoong had confidence in Seonghwa’s abilities.

“Now could you please pass me the items you brought? I’ll need them to create a salve to treat his injuries.” Seonghwa asked kindly as he turned to Hongjoong and held out his hand.

When Seonghwa turned towards him Hongjoong could see a small cut running across his cheek. Hongjoong took a couple steps forward and carefully placed the small box in Seonghwa’s hand but his eyes were solely focused on the wound.

“Seonghwa, your face…” Hongjoong commented quietly.

Seonghwa reached up and felt the cut, giving a small hiss at the twinge of pain.

“Damn, I did not even realize…” Seonghwa murmured, his thought trailing off as he pulled his hand away, looking at the small amount of blood on his fingertips.

Seonghwa turned and looked up at Hongjoong. “Did you want a taste?”

Hongjoong’s eyes went wide in surprise as Seonghwa’s comment seemed completely out of left-field and Lune could be heard snidely giggling, watching from his place on the couch.

“No! No I don’t need—I’m—I don’t think this is the time for—No. Thank you.” Hongjoong sputtered out, his eyes flicking between Seonghwa and Lune, his stomach tying itself in knots in embarrassment.

“Very well.” Seonghwa said casually, placing his hand over the cut and having the cut heal up in nearly an instant. “Now, back to my sweet injured boy.” He quickly turned back to the eagerly awaiting Lune.

Seonghwa went to work preparing the healing salve as Hongjoong took a seat across the room, watching him work intently but also not being able to break eye contact with Lune who sat there constantly staring at him.

Gently taking Lune’s ankle, Seonghwa stretched out his leg, placing it across his lap as he began to apply the salve. Every so often Lune would let out a low hiss, digging his fingernails into the couch cushions, his eyes turning a menacing deep red colour as the salve stung something terrible. But he never once laid a finger on Seonghwa no matter the pain level and continued to let him work, almost seeming to relish in Seonghwa fawning over him.

At one point Lune brought his hand up to his mouth, in an involuntary reflex of licking his wound and Seonghwa was quick to scold him with a gentle ‘ _ ah ah _ ’, slowly lowering his hand once more. Hongjoong was amazed at the level of care and kindness Seonghwa exhibited towards Lune despite him being the powerfully old demon Seonghwa often described him as. Once all of Lune’s injuries had been treated and wrapped in gauze, Seonghwa let out a small sigh of relief.

“There. All done.” He said with a warm smile, giving Lune’s cheek a loving pat. “Now, no touching, you hear me?” His tone had become much more stern as Lune gave a small nod, gently pawing his wavy hair behind his ear with his uninjured hand. 

“I know you don’t really like being in this form but it should only take a couple days before you’re back to your old self.” 

Lune nodded once more as he curiously looked over the bandages wrapped around his hand and arm, testing out the range of movement of his limb.

Seonghwa packed up the remainder of his items and headed back to his bedroom, briefly leaving Lune and Hongjoong alone once more.

“Hongjoong~” Lune said in a sly tone, cracking that feline-like smile once more.

Hongjoong had no idea what Lune was capable of in this form but couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy, partially because this demon who had more than once attempted to literally eat him seemed to be taunting him… and was also still very much completely naked. Lune slowly got to his feet. Hongjoong began to panic slightly, immediately averting his eyes as Lune padded his way over to him, favouring his injured leg with a small limp as he went.

Turning his back to Hongjoong, Lune carefully sat splayed at his feet, gently resting his head on Hongjoong’s lap. Hongjoong had quickly raised his arms in alarm at Lune’s curious actions, having no idea whatsoever as to what he was supposed to do.

“I like it when you pet me.” Lune said quietly, softly nuzzling his cheek against Hongjoong’s leg.

Hongjoong slowly lowered his arms, still a little apprehensive of Lune, not wanting to unintentionally overwhelm himself and turn into a bat. If Dal was willing to attempt to hunt him down and eat him as a bat, who knows what Lune would do to him as a human. But Hongjoong felt it best to go along with his wishes and slowly placed his hand on Lune’s head. He gently began running his fingers through his hair and Lune let out a pleased hum, slowly closing his eyes and wrapping his arms around Hongjoong’s leg, preventing him from any sort of escape. Now held hostage but this demon, Hongjoong merely continued to give him soft pats on the head, praying that Seonghwa would come back any second.

“Uh Seonghwa?” Hongjoong called once more.

“Yes, what is it?” Seonghwa replied.

“Could you, um, maybe bring some clothes for, uh, Lune so that he’s less… naked?” Hongjoong asked.

Seonghwa was quick to emerge from his bedroom carrying a light black robe. He couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at the scene unfolding in front of him.

“I like Hongjoong.” Lune said while lazily opening his eyes and looking up at Seonghwa with a smile.

Seonghwa walked over and draped the robe over Lune’s shoulders.

“Well I’m glad you approve.” Seonghwa said in a gentle tone, threading Lune’s arms through the robe and pulling it closed at the front. “I think we will be seeing a lot of Hongjoong for a very long time.”

Hongjoong looked up at Seonghwa with a fond smile.

“If Hongjoong ever does anything to hurt master, I won’t hesitate to kill him for you.” Lune commented, his tone much darker than before.

“I don’t think that will be necessary.” Seonghwa said with a hearty laugh.

All Hongjoong could do was pretend to laugh along as well, continuing to placate Lune with some gentle head pats as he swallowed nervously at Lune’s proposition, wondering just how serious he was being or if ancient cat demons even knew what sarcasm was.

***

Over the next few days, living with the now-human Lune became quite the challenge for Hongjoong and required a lot of adjustments. Mannerisms that were quite common for a domesticated feline—even if said feline was a demon familiar—came across much differently when displayed by a half-naked, albeit very handsome young man. Especially when those mannerisms were displayed to someone Hongjoong had the biggest, fattest crush on.

While Seonghwa had originally set up a bed for Lune on the living room couch, that first night found Lune sneaking into bed with Seonghwa, curling up next to him, reveling in his body heat. Hongjoong couldn’t help but feel a jealous knot growing in the pit of his stomach. When Lune was a cat it was all fine and well but the same affection being given from another human right in front of him just didn’t sit right with him. Hongjoong couldn’t help but feel like an odd third wheel despite Seonghwa’s constant reassurances that his relationship with Lune was a purely platonic working relationship.

As time passed, Hongjoong quickly found that he could not even spend any time alone with Seonghwa because as long as Lune was stuck in his human form, he was always right there at Seonghwa’s side. 

The second night, Seonghwa had left Lune to sleep in his bed and joined Hongjoong out in the living room, throwing himself down on the couch beside him. They just sat in silence for some time, both exhausted but neither knowing exactly what to say until Seonghwa finally broke the silence.

“Sorry, I know Lune can be a lot to handle but I promise it’ll only be for a couple more days.” Seonghwa said with a sigh.

“It’s fine, I’m sure I’ll survive.” Hongjoong replied with a scoff, leaning over and laying his head on Seonghwa’s shoulder. “It’s at least nice just to sit here with you, even if only for a little while.”

“Are you hungry at all? Do you need to feed?” Seonghwa asked. “Since Lune is asleep he shouldn’t bother us for a little while—”

No sooner had Seonghwa spoken the words than Lune had appeared at the door to his bedroom. Quickly skipping over to the couch he immediately splayed his half-naked self across both their laps, weaseling between them.

“Nevermind.” Seonghwa said with a small laugh as Hongjoong shifted to the side, allowing Lune to press himself up against Seonghwa instead.

Hongjoong could feel himself becoming more and more jealous due to the constant doting Lune was receiving from Seonghwa, especially since Lune had no concept of human personal space and Seonghwa seemed to bend to his every whim while he healed.

The third night Lune had become much braver and had attempted to snuggle with Hongjoong instead. Hongjoong had been deep asleep when he felt a familiar heat slide up against him. Hongjoong let out a small hum as he pressed himself back against the warm body. Hongjoong wasn’t fully awake but he could feel the other’s warm breath on the back of his neck, a soft playful nip at his ear.

“Seonghwa, please.” Hongjoong said with a happy giggle, playfully swatting away the other’s advances.

“Seonghwa? You call for my master?” Lune said in a devilish voice only inches from Hongjoong’s ear.

“Lune?!” Hongjoong gasped out, bolting wide awake and quickly distancing himself from the familiar.

Lune lazily rolled onto his back with a playful pout. “So you’ll let me lay with you when I’m in my other form but not this one? And then you mistake me for my master? How rude.”

“Lune get out of here!” Hongjoong snarled, actually baring his fangs for once.

Lune sadly slunk off the side of the bed and out of the room, giving Hongjoong one last glare as he headed into Seonghwa’s room instead. Hongjoong let out a long disgruntled sigh as he flopped face down on the sheets and attempted to fall back asleep.

***

After five long days, the issues with human Lune finally came to a breaking point. 

Hongjoong had had a particularly stressful day and had come home starving and exhausted. He knew better than to go all day without eating but his nerves had gotten the better of him making him too anxious to sneak away to grab a bite to eat and the UV had been so intense that every remaining ounce of energy had been sapped from his body in the meantime. He didn’t even make it as far as his bedroom, but instead flopped down on the couch, barely having the energy to kick off his shoes.

He was glad that the apartment was quiet but it seemed suspiciously so. That was fine though as he just needed to rest for a few minutes before he could drag himself over to the fridge and grab something to eat. No sooner had the thought crossed his mind when Seonghwa returned home meaning Lune was sure to be following close behind. At least Seonghwa had finally convinced him to start wearing pants but Hongjoong still let out a groan in displeasure at the thought of his presence. Hongjoong was quite surprised seeing that Seonghwa was completely alone.

“Hey.” Hongjoong groaned. “Where’s Lune… or Dal.. or whatever he is right now?”

“Yunho and San are babysitting him. I thought we could use the peace and quiet for a little while.” Seonghwa replied as he walked over to Hongjoong. “You seem particularly drained, everything okay?”

“Yeah, just haven’t gotten around to eating yet so I’m a little out of it.” Hongjoong mumbled.

“Say no more.” Seonghwa said as he immediately began unbuttoning the top of his shirt.

“You really don’t have to.” Hongjoong said, pulling himself up into a sitting position as Seonghwa sat down on the couch beside him.

“You know as well as I that you’ll get your energy back twice as fast drinking straight from me than from some chilled, processed plastic bag.”

Seonghwa made a valid point and Hongjoong didn’t have the energy to argue with him and instead shifted over until he was comfortably seated on Seonghwa’s lap. Seonghwa turned his head to the side to give a clear view of the arteries in his neck.

“Thank you.” Hongjoong said quietly.

Hongjoong did not hesitate. He was so swift in sinking his fangs into Seonghwa’s neck that it actually caught Seonghwa off guard, causing him to let out a rather loud gasp. Having only taken a partial mouthful of blood Hongjoong quickly pulled away.

“You okay?” He asked in a concerned tone, having heard Seonghwa’s gasp.

“It’s fine, really! You just startled me a little.” Seonghwa said. “Please, continue.”

“Sorry.” Hongjoong murmured apologetically before going back in for more, but much more gently this time.

After several minutes Seonghwa gave Hongjoong a light tap on the back signaling he was starting to feel woozy and Hongjoong quickly stopped and pulled away. 

“Thanks again.” Hongjoong said once more. “Do you want me to get you anything? Orange juice? A cookie?”

Before Seonghwa could answer Lune came bursting through the door.

“Master how dare you force me to fraternize with a third-rate fox demon—” He immediately stopped mid-thought when he saw the scene in front of him: Seonghwa looking slightly dazed with a bloody neck while Hongjoong still had his fangs bared, braces and all, lips red with Seonghwa’s blood dribbling a little down the side of his chin.

Lune’s eyes flashed red with rage and before Hongjoong could even make a move he had lunged, grabbing ahold of the back of Hongjoong’s shirt, ripping him away from Seonghwa and throwing him clear across the room with an incredible force.

“You dare harm my master?!” Lune growled, crowding in on Hongjoong as he lay splayed upside down against the far wall.

“Da—Lune no!” Seonghwa yelled, quickly pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket and pressing it against his neck in the interim of him being able to heal himself. “Leave Hongjoong alone, he did not hurt me!”

But Lune was not listening and lunged at Hongjoong once more, causing Hongjoong’s flight response to kick in as he burst into a flurry of bats scattering around the room.

“Now look what you’ve done!” Seonghwa said in an annoyed tone as he got to his feet, his eyes scanning the flurry of bats, trying to pinpoint which one was Hongjoong.

Before Lune could make another move Seonghwa had recited an incantation causing his collar to flash a bright red colour, immediately forcing him to stop in his tracks.

“Lune you  _ will _ listen to me.” Seonghwa commanded sternly, a scary look in his eyes as Hongjoong rematerialized back in his human form, cowering behind the couch away from Lune. “You will not lay a single finger on Hongjoong, do you hear me? I thought I previously made myself  _ very clear _ that he is  _ not _ to be harmed!”

Lune gritted his teeth and seemed to be straining slightly against Seonghwa’s spell that was holding him in place.

“Do you understand?” Seonghwa asked with raised eyebrows.

“Understood.” Lune replied reluctantly. “I am not to hurt Hongjoong.”

“Good.” Seonghwa replied. “Next time if you try anything this spell will immediately enact binding you in place, be it in cat or human form. Got it?”

Lune nodded with a bit of a grumble before Seonghwa deactivated the spell and he slunk back into Seonghwa’s room away from the others.

“I’m sorry for that… again...” Seonghwa said with a sigh, finally healing his own neck. “I… he should be fully healed by tomorrow and this won’t be an issue anymore.”

Hongjoong lazily rolled over the back of the couch and onto the cushions below, resting his head on Seonghwa’s lap.

“I’ll never be more glad for someone to make a full recovery than I will be when Lune is finally able to go back to his cat form.” Hongjoong said with a small laugh as Seonghwa gently ran a hand over his hair.

***

Several days later Hongjoong was laying in bed when he felt something heavy jump up on the end of the mattress. When he looked up he saw the sleek black feline body of Dal happily padding his way across the duvet with a small trill. 

“Oh so  _ now _ you want to be friends.” Hongjoong commented sarcastically.

Dal continued his way up towards Hongjoong’s pillow and curled up against his chest, happily purring against him.

All Hongjoong could think of was the injured young man who had rested his head in his lap while threatening him only a couple days before. The same man he had seen happily sharing Seonghwa’s bed that night, curled up tightly against him and who had also constantly been coming between him and Seonghwa whenever they had any free time together for nearly a week ...and who had also tried to kill him.

“Call me jealous all you want but I think I like you better in this form.” Hongjoong said with a bit of a laugh as he gave Dal a scratch behind the ear. “At least when  _ I’m _ in  _ this _ form.”

Dal merely let out a low grumble as he bonked his head against Hongjoong’s hand, enticing him to continue petting him.

“I think I can tolerate a needy cat over a needy human any day.”


	8. Iudicium Et Error Pt. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters involved in this mini multi-chapter storyline will be getting progressively darker and will deal with demonic possession and exorcisms as well as the psychological manipulation and physical pain and trauma that would come from such events. Proceed at your own risk if any of these themes may be troubling to read.  
> Storyline rating: M

It was finally Friday night and Hongjoong couldn’t wait for the weekend. If he had a beating heart it would have been absolutely fluttering but instead he spent every waking moment softly vibrating with excitement. Seonghwa had outdone himself and planned out an elaborate series of events for them over the weekend and it would technically be their first official ‘date.’ Hongjoong had never actually dated anyone before per normal human traditions so everything was completely new—yet mildly terrifying—to him. But if it meant that he got to spend the entire weekend being close with Seonghwa… His mind trailed off knowing that if he got too worked up in his own excitement he would most likely end up flustering himself and he really did not want to poof into a bat right now.

Hongjoong’s classes were already over for the night and he was waiting back at the dorm for Seonghwa. It was storming outside as lightning streaked across the sky but Hongjoong didn’t mind because they had been planning on spending the first night in the dorms anyways. Seonghwa had picked out one of his favourite scary movies to watch and Hongjoong could only smile as he imagined sneakily cuddling up next to him to comfort him when he got too scared. He couldn’t wait to feel Seonghwa’s comforting body heat pressed up against him—Hongjoong quickly gave himself a hard smack on the cheek knowing he was getting too flustered once again and needed to calm down.

In an unplanned turn of events, Seonghwa had sent Hongjoong a text just before his class was over that he was going to be a bit late getting home that night. Wooyoung had called him out on a quick job but he said that it shouldn’t take too long and he’d easily be home by midnight. So until he returned all Hongjoong could do was wait as his anticipation continued to build with every passing minute.

It was currently around 11pm and Hongjoong tried his best to keep himself preoccupied, reading some web comics on his phone as he lay upside down on his bed. Every time he heard someone walking down the hall his stomach did a loop. It would take him another few minutes to calm back down again after realizing it was just one of their neighbours getting home or taking out the trash, etc.

When there came a loud knock at their door Hongjoong literally leapt off the bed and rushed to answer it. He thought it was a little strange for Seonghwa to knock but he didn’t question it. Maybe this was part of the surprise he had planned? But when he looked through the peephole, despite the image being obscured by the foggy old glass, someone who definitely wasn’t Seonghwa was standing on the other side of the door instead. And they looked to be struggling with something heavy.

There was another loud knock followed but what Hongjoong could hear as cursing.

“Hey! I know you’re in there! Open up!” The voice called from the other side of the door.

Hongjoong hesitated for a moment before slowly unlatching the door and opening it a crack.

“Who’s there?” He tried to ask but as soon as the stranger noticed the door was open they barged into the room, shoving past him while piggy-backing an conscious blood-covered Seonghwa along with him.

Seonghwa looked in really rough shape with his head lolled over the stranger’s shoulder.

“Seonghwa?! What the hell happened?!” Hongjoong frantically left out a muffled gasp, a hand clamped over his nose and mouth as he followed close behind them into Seonghwa’s bedroom. “Is he okay?! Do I—we need to call someone?!”

The stranger tossed Seonghwa back onto the bed. He was evidently exhausted as he quickly turned around and knelt down beside the bed to make sure he hadn’t been too rough and that Seonghwa was at least not any worse off. 

Despite his best efforts against it, the smell of blood was quickly overwhelming Hongjoong. But it wasn’t Seonghwa’s blood. No, it was someone else's. Hongjoong couldn’t figure out why Seonghwa was covered in someone else’s blood. Was it the stranger’s blood?

Hongjoong awkwardly stood at the bedroom door trying to process everything but it was like his brain was running on a dial-up internet connection and things just weren’t connecting. As he looked the young man over he noticed that he too was covered in blood. Maybe it  _ was _ his blood but he didn’t seem to actually be bleeding. He also didn't look to be much older than Hongjoong himself. He was definitely human and definitely physically out of shape by the sound of the beating heart that was currently pounding in Hongjoong’s ears. Hongjoong gave his head a bit of a tilt as he angrily wiggled his pinky finger in his ear in an attempt to stop the barrage of sounds and to get his mind back on track.

Noticing how oddly Hongjoong was acting the stranger slowly got to his feet and began to approach him.

“You’re the roommate right? The vampire?” The young man said, looking over Hongjoong with a bit of a scowl as if he was unimpressed with what was standing in front of him.

“Uh yeah, but who the hell are you?” Hongjoong said as he snapped back to his senses. “And what the hell happened to him?!” He repeated in a slightly more authoritative tone gesturing between them.

“Name’s Wooyoung.” He replied curtly, extending a bloody hand towards him.

“Oh so  _ you’re _ Wooyoung.” Hongjoong replied with a bit of a tone. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Hongjoong looked down at the hand and grimaced slightly. Wooyoung quickly noticed his discomfort before retracting his hand and frantically wiping it on his pant leg to remove some of the grime.

“Did something happen out on your job or whatever? Is Seonghwa gonna be alright? Is he injured?” Hongjoong began to drabble on.

“Yeah, yeah he should be fine.” Wooyoung said, cutting Hongjoong short. “But we don’t have much time. You good at following instructions?”

“Uhhh… sure, I guess?” Hongjoong replied, giving Wooyoung an offput look at how vague he was being.

“Good because your boyfriend here got possessed and we need to work fast.”

“Oh he’s not my—I mean, it’s sort of complica—Wait, he what?!”

“Got possessed. Happens sometimes. Do you have any rope?” Wooyoung said, cutting him off once more. “As soon as he comes-to he’s gonna start fighting and we need to tie him down before things get messy so I can get this sucker out of him.”

Hongjoong’s mind flatlined at the sudden barrage of information and he just stood there with his jaw slightly agape.

“Rope! Do. you. have. any?!” Wooyoung repeated in a tone similar to what one would use with a stubborn kindergartener.

“Uh, I… no?” Hongjoong stuttered out.

“Alright then I guess we’ll just have to make due with what we have.” Wooyoung said looking around Seonghwa’s small bedroom, his eyes falling on Seonghwa’s bedding. “Ugh, he’s going to absolutely kill me for this but… gotta do what we gotta do.”

Wooyoung grabbed the sheet off Seonghwa’s bed, yanking it out from under him as he gave a small groan but otherwise did not wake.

“Here, tear this into eight inch wide strips. You got sharper teeth than me, I'm sure you can handle it.” Wooyoung said tossing the sheet to Hongjoong who fumbled with it in his arms.

Wooyoung had removed a large messenger bag that he had been carrying and began pouring out the contents onto the bedroom floor. Hongjoong stood there for a second looking between Wooyoung working frantically and Seonghwa lying unconscious on the bed while absentmindedly holding onto the large sheet. Looking at the edge of the sheet he knew he sure as hell wasn’t about to rip this fabric with his teeth and risk popping off one of his braces brackets so instead he rushed into the kitchen and grabbed a pair of scissors, cutting at increments of eight inches as instructed before tearing the sheet into long strips. When he came back into the room he saw Wooyoung had set up half a dozen large candles on Seonghwa’s desk and was frantically lighting them, his hands shaking in the process.

“Here give me some of those!” Wooyoung said as he held out his hand. “You secure his feet against the bedframe and I’ll get his wrists. Make sure the knots are  _ tight _ .”

Hongjoong tossed him some of the strips and they quickly got to work. He removed Seonghwa’s boots, tossing them to the floor before twisting the strips of sheet into makeshift ropes and tying them around each of Seonghwa’s ankles before tightly securing them against the wrought iron bed frame. By the time Hongjoong had finished, Wooyung had bound Seonghwa’s wrists to the headboard above him and was going about securing a gag in his mouth.

“Is that really necessary?” Hongjoong said as he saw how tightly Wooyoung was tying the gag.

“Trust me, when he wakes up he’s not going to be himself and you’re not going to want to hear what he has to say.”

Wooyoung’s curtness and seemingly rough and careless treatment of Seonghwa was really starting to get on Hongjoong’s nerves.

“Listen, why should I even trust you?” Hongjoong said in a tone of protest. “And where’s Dal? He never leaves Seonghwa’s side...”

“You  _ need _ to trust me because I’m all you’ve got right now. My grandparents were shamans, I know what I’m doing.” Wooyoung spat back. “And Dal… Dal’s gone.” Wooyoung’s tone quickly dropped.

“What do you mean Dal’s gone?” Hongjoong pressed, closing the distance between him and Wooyoung.

Wooyoung stopped what he was doing to push his hair back out of his eyes, taking in a deep breath as he did so as if trying to find the right words to explain it in a way Hongjoong would understand.

“When Seonghwa got possessed Dal tried to use his abilities as a familiar to protect him but Seonghwa—well, the spirit possessing Seonghwa and controlling his body—used Seonghwa’s own powers against him and ended up banishing him, severing their ties as master and familiar. Dal’s gone.”

“What?!” Was all Hongjoong could muster to blurt out.

Hongjoong couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Seonghwa would never hurt Dal let alone banish him back to whatever realm of existence he came from. He might have only known him a couple months but the Seonghwa he knew would probably die before he let anything happen to that cat.

“But Seonghwa would never!” Hongjoong exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yeah  _ Seonghwa _ wouldn’t but that’s currently not Seonghwa.” Wooyoung said motioning to the unconscious body laying on Seonghwa’s bed.

Wooyoung continued about his work, drawing a series of chalk markings on the floor before struggling to drag Seonghwa’s bed into the middle of them and further surrounding them with the lit candles. When he was finished he leaned back over Seonghwa to check on his current condition.

“Hmm looks like he’ll be out for a little while longer.” Wooyoung muttered to himself. “I told him not to take so much but he never listens to me.”

“Take too much of what?” Hongjoong asked.

“Seonghwa had created this… elixir of sorts to use in emergency situations like this. It would essentially knock him out and render his powers useless to anything that tried to possess his body. After the Dal incident he was able to regain control just long enough to take it. He really only needed a swig but he downed the entire thing and immediately hit the ground. Hard. When he wakes though… that spirit is going to be  _ pissed _ .”

Wooyoung absentmindedly pushed his hair out of his face again as Hongjoong stood nearby, nervously gnawing on his thumbnail.

“Hey, since I have a little bit of time do you have a washroom or somewhere I could clean up a little?” Wooyoung asked, his tone a lot softer and considerate. “I can tell the smell of the blood is sort of bothering you.”

Hongjoong’s eyes went wide in surprise as this suddenly considerate act.

“Oh, uh, it’s really not all that bad. I’ve sort of gotten used to it by now but, uh the washroom is the door on the left.” Hongjoong said as he motioned out of the bedroom.

“Cool. Thanks.” Wooyoung said as he grabbed a spare shirt out of his bag and headed to the door. “If he wakes, DO NOT under any circumstances untie him. Got it?”

Hongjoong just nodded as Wooyoung disappeared, the sound of the faucet turning on at full blast soon followed as Wooyoung locked himself in the washroom. Hongjoong nervously approached the bed, warily peering over at Seonghwa laying there. He looked sort of peaceful… despite being bound and gagged… and covered in someone else’s blood.

“This was definitely not something I was expecting when you said you had a surprise for me.” Hongjoong muttered as he continued to hover, assessing the situation.

Hongjoong decided to run to the kitchen and grab a small washcloth, wetting it before coming back into the room. He carefully sat down on the bed at Seonghwa’s side and ever-so-gently Hongjoong began to wipe away the blood and grime from Seonghwa’s face, neck and hands. He knew Seonghwa hated being in an ‘unclean’ state so it was the least he could do while he waited for Wooyoung to return to continue doing whatever he needed to do.

However, it wasn’t long before Seonghwa stirred beneath Hongjoong’s touch, letting out a small whimper as his eyes slowly began to open.

“Seonghwa? Seonghwa are you awake?” Hongjoong asked frantically, getting back to his feet and dropping the washcloth on the ground.

Seonghwa stirred once more, pulling slightly against his makeshift restraints.

“Wooyoung! Wooyoung come quick, he’s awake!” Hongjoong called but it seemed like Wooyoung couldn’t hear him over the running water.

Seonghwa’s eyes began to frantically look around as he slowly grew more aware of his surroundings and the situation he was currently in. He gave a pitiful sound in protest, muffled by the gag as he swiveled his head to look at the sheets binding his hands and feet. Pulling once more at the bindings it was quite evident that they were holding tight and panic began to set in. Seonghwa’s movements became more erratic until his gaze finally settled on Hongjoong, his eyes conveying a look of fear, pleading with Hongjoong as he continued to let out small whimpers.

“Seonghwa what’s wrong?” Hongjoong said quietly as he took a few steps closer. “It’s me, Hongjoong. You don’t need to be scared. Wooyoung said this was for your own safety. He said you were possessed and he’s going to help you.”

Seonghwa struggled to try and say something but couldn’t form any coherent words due to the gag but whatever he was trying to say still managed to sound like some sort of plea. Hongjoong suddenly felt a pang of guilt growing in his stomach as he looked over Seonghwa’s pitiful form. His heartbeat and breathing had both become erratic and he kept repeating the same muffled words over and over as his eyes started to become glassy, filling with tears.

Hongjoong was absolutely torn but he couldn’t bear to look at Seonghwa like this any longer. It was also at that moment that Hongjoong finally made out what Seonghwa was trying to say.

“ _ Hongjoong... please save me. _ ”

Hongjoong looked back over his shoulder to check that Wooyoung was still occupied in the bathroom before turning back to Seonghwa. He thought something felt off about Wooyoung and now that feeling had come back tenfold. Wooyoung could be the one that’s possessed for all he knew.  _ He _ could be the one who knocked Seonghwa unconscious.  _ He _ could be the one who banished Dal. And who knows what  _ he _ was going to do to Seonghwa in this vulnerable state.

“It’s okay, I’ll save you.” Hongjoong said in a confident tone as he leaned down and began untying the gag knot from the back of Seonghwa’s head.

When Seonghwa was finally able to speak again he looked up at Hongjoong with a look of utter relief.

“Hongjoong, please, untie me before he gets back! He’s trying to hurt me.” Seonghwa pleaded.

Hongjoong frantically nodded and quickly went to untie Seonghwa’s left wrist. He was so immersed in trying to undo the knots that Wooyoung had tied that he didn’t even notice that the sound of the water had stopped and the washroom door had opened.

“Thanks for that.” Wooyung said with a sigh as he ruffled his now damp, shaggy hair, walking back into the bedroom.

As soon as he saw Hongjoong kneeling on the bed, working at untying Seonghwa all the colour drained from his face.

“Hongjoong!” Wooyoung hissed as Seonghwa’s eyes locked with his gaze, flickering a violent red colour.

“Hongjoong faster! Please don’t let him hurt me!” Seonghwa repeated in a sickeningly fake-yet-sweet tone, his lips curling into a devilish smile.

“HONGJOONG... NO!”


	9. Iudicium Et Error Pt. 2

“HONGJOONG… NO!” Wooyoung yelled as he dropped the towel in his hands and lunged towards the young vampire.

Wooyoung was just barely fast enough to push Hongjoong out of harm’s way but not quite fast enough to protect himself. After the makeshift restraint had been loosened Seonghwa had managed to pull his left hand free, slashing at the air and raking his razor-sharp fingernails across Wooyoung’s back. Wooyoung let out a long hiss in pain as he tackled Hongjoong around the waist and they both went tumbling onto the floor, piling on top of each other.

“You fucking idiot!” Wooyoung snarled as struggled to push himself up off of Hongjoong, his arms shaking as he attempted to stave off the pain of Seonghwa’s attack.

Wooyoung hesitated for a moment, inhaling sharply while trying to get his wits about him once more. Hongjoong lay splayed on his back beneath him, slightly dazed from the sudden impact, the scent of human blood slowly wafting into the air sending his senses into a mild frenzy. As Wooyoung tried to untangle himself from Hongjoong, Seonghwa had already begun to untie his other hand. Seeing what was unfolding above him, Wooyoung knew he had to work fast. Leaping to his feet he made no hesitation clambering up onto the bed and straddling Seonghwa, pressing a knee firmly down on his chest while taking a tight grip on his freed wrist, wrenching it away from the intact restraint.

“Unhand me you half-rate shaman!” Seonghwa bellowed in an unnaturally cruel tone as he tried to yank his arm out of Wooyoung’s grasp but Wooyoung remained steadfast.

“W-what are you doing!” Hongjoong gasped out as he slowly picked himself up off the ground. “Let him go!”

“Let him _go_?!” Wooyoung huffed in utter disbelief, his voice strained as he struggled to keep Seonghwa in place. “Hongjoong this isn’t your witchy boyfriend right now, this is a literal demon!”

“No! He said you were trying to hurt him!” Hongjoong angrily retorted, getting to his feet and gritting his teeth, not knowing quite what to do.

“He’s lying!” Wooyoung snapped. “That’s what malicious spirits do, _they lie!_ That’s why he had the gag in the first place.”

Hongjoong stood there wide-eyed, shaking his head in a worrisome manner as if a small part of him refused to believe what Wooyoung was saying. Wooyoung immediately picked up on Hongjoong’s uncertainty as frustration continued to grow within him and let out an irritated sigh.

“Look. Since when did Seonghwa start getting manicures like this?” Wooyoung bit back, brandishing Seonghwa’s free hand in front of Hongjoong’s face as Seonghwa strained against him.

When Hongjoong looked at Seonghwa’s hand it was evident there was something dark and unnatural about it. In the short amount of time since his awakening, Seonghwa’s nails had rapidly grown long and jagged, his skin slowly turning a sinister black colour from the tips of his fingers and spreading to the palm of his hand. Hongjoong honestly couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Was this even still Seonghwa’s body? When he looked back up at Seonghwa’s face he was greeted with that same pained, pleading expression.

“Hongjoong… please save me…” Seonghwa cried out in a broken voice, tears welling in his eyes but the flickering red colour of his irises were a glaring tell.

“Oh shut the fuck up.” Wooyoung hissed, grabbing the cloth remnants of the gag and stuffing them back into Seonghwa’s mouth, muffling his pleas temporarily before he was able to spit it out once more.

“Filthy human, get off of me!” Seonghwa growled, squirming beneath him.

The spirit possessing Seonghwa was evidently quite strong but Wooyoung was able to keep him pinned down just long enough to pull a small bottle of clear liquid out of his back pocket. He yanked out the corked top with his teeth, immediately dousing Seonghwa with its contents. Seonghwa let out a terrifyingly inhuman scream as steam began to emit from his body and he thrashed wildly. After a few painful seconds his body went limp and Wooyoung took this opportunity to quickly secure Seonghwa’s hand tightly against the bed frame once more. 

Once he had triple-checked all the knots Wooyoung crawled off the bed as Seonghwa lay there and continued to make small, pained gurgling noises, his eyes having turned a permanent deep red colour.

“Wh-what the hell did you do to him!?” Hongjoong blurted out, mildly horrified at what he had just witnessed as Seonghwa’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, his head lolling from side to side.

“Don’t worry it’s only holy water.” Wooyoung replied with a sigh, tossing the empty bottle into the trash. “The malicious spirit can’t stand it but Seonghwa’s body will be fine. It won’t have any lasting physical effect on him.” 

When Wooyoung turned his back to Hongjoong to rummage through his bag, Hongjoong could finally see four long streaks of blood that had begun to seep through the back of Wooyoung’s t-shirt. Despite having smelled the blood earlier, Hongjoong somehow had not realized Wooyoung had sustained such an injury and his struggle against Seonghwa had apparently only exacerbated things.

“Wooyoung, your back...” Hongjoong’s voice trailed off quietly.

Wooyoung craned his neck and twisted his arm to blindly feel at his back, unintentionally hitting one of the deep cuts and letting out another pained hiss.

“Fuck. And I literally just changed my shirt.” Wooyoung angrily muttered, being more concerned about his damaged clothing than his physical state.

“Are, uh, are you okay?” Hongjoong asked. “That looks pretty painful.”

“I would have been fine if you had done what you were told and not untied him!” Wooyoung spat back, dropping his bag and suddenly crowding into Hongjoong’s personal space.

“I’m sorry I—I didn’t know… I let his words get to me. I thought I was doing the right thing!” Hongjoong muttered out, averting eye contact and taking a couple steps backwards until his back was pressed up against the opposite wall, Wooyoung staying glued to him with every step.

“Yeah and I _also_ told you to not remove the gag but it seems you were shit at following those instructions as well.” Wooyoung continued, gesturing angrily in Seonghwa’s direction.

“I said I was sorry! I’ve never dealt with this kind of stuff before!” Hongjoong continued, he could feel a small ball of rage slowly growing inside of him as he clenched his fists at his side. “And how the hell was I supposed to trust you when I’ve never ever _met_ you before and you show up on my doorstep with Seonghwa drenched in blood! If Seonghwa says _you’re_ the one trying to hurt him, honestly I’m more inclined to believe him!”

“Yeah and look where that got us.” Wooyoung muttered, wincing slightly in pain.

Wooyoung let out another agitated sigh, backing off a couple steps while aggressively running his hands through his hair. He turned back to his bag, knowing that arguing with Hongjoong was going to get him nowhere and there were much more pressing issues at hand. Sitting down on the floor, he pulled out a couple books from his bag and began flipping through them, trying to find the right passages needed to perform the exorcism.

“How the hell are you a supernatural who has never come across a ghost before?” Wooyoung commented in an offhanded manner while he searched through the books as if mocking Hongjoong.

“I lived a really sheltered life up until coming to this school, okay?” Hongjoong replied in a small defeated voice.

“Ugh, you’re a pureblood aren’t you?” Wooyoung asked in a haughty tone while rolling his eyes. “You’ve probably had your entire life handed to you on a silver platter, huh? Never having to actually get your hands dirty with the troubles of us lesser supernaturals.”

Rage was quickly building within him and Hongjoong was about three seconds away from decking Wooyoung square in the jaw when there suddenly came a loud ringing noise from the bed that drew both their attention away.

“His phone!” Wooyoung exclaimed as he dropped the book and dove for the bed.

Seonghwa was still writhing in pain as Wooyoung roughly tried to fish the cell phone out of his back pants pocket. When he was finally able to retrieve it his face contorted into grimace as he looked at the caller ID of the missed call.

“Eden.” He scowled. “Hey, do you know his phone’s pass code?” Wooyoung said, turning to Hongjoong.

“Uh, no?”

“Alright then we do this the hard way.” Wooyoung said, activating the facial recognition option and roughly grabbing onto Seonghwa’s hair, pulling his head forward.

Seonghwa hissed and snapped his teeth at Wooyoung as he shoved the phone in Seonghwa’s face, eventually hearing the affirmative ping of the facial recognition app. Wooyoung was quick to unlock the phone and immediately redialed the number that had just called.

When the phone was answered on the other end, instead of greeting the person in a normal fashion Wooyoung merely blurted out “Eden what the actual fuck?!”

Hongjoong stood wide-eyed nearby having no idea what was currently transpiring.

“What do you mean ‘is the job done?’ No! Seonghwa got fucking possesses because you didn’t inform us that this was a malicious and possibility even demonic spirit!” Wooyoung yelled into the phone. “His protective charms? Of course. You’re really going to try and pin this on him?! He’s not stupid. There’s not a day where I don’t see him wearing at least 5 different crosses on his person at any given time.”

The bottom dropped completely out of Hongjoong’s stomach as he listened to Wooyoung’s conversation. Just the night before Hongjoong had accidentally overexerted himself and Seonghwa had been nice enough to let Hongjoong feed from him again. However during the whole process, one of Seonghwa’s dangling cross earrings had unintentionally made contact with Hongjoong’s cheek giving him a rather nasty burn. Seonghwa had quickly removed his earrings as well as the cross necklace and ring he was wearing so as not to cause any further harm to Hongjoong.

“Crosses?” Hongjoong interjected. “No, actually… he, uh, he removed them.”

“What?” Wooyoung scoffed with a bewildered expression, turning to Hongjoong with the phone still up to his ear.

Wooyoung roughly grabbed the collar of Seonghwa’s shirt and pulled it down revealing Seonghwa’s neck and collarbones as if inspecting his flesh. Wooyoung’s eyes quickly darted between Seonghwa’s hands and ears; not a single piece of jewelry was present anywhere meaning there wasn’t a single protective charm currently on his person.

“Shit.” Wooyoung cursed going back to his phone conversation. “Alright nevermind. Just—you better pay double for our troubles, got it?” 

Wooyoung angrily hung up the phone without even a ‘goodbye’ and tossed it onto the dresser.

“Why did he remove all his protective charms?!” Wooyoung said in an accusatory tone as he got up in Hongjoong’s face. “He would never remove them normally. What did _you_ make him do?!”

“I’m a vampire. If we were to get close—he didn’t want to hurt me.” Hongjoong blurted out. “I didn’t realize they were important—he must have forgotten to put them back on. Or maybe he chose not to put them back on… I really don’t know!”

“Well _that_ explains how he got possessed then.” Wooyoung sighed, running his hands through his hair once again. “He never goes—used to go anywhere without them as a precaution and now he’s left defenseless because instead of protecting himself he only wants to protect you.”

“Wait, are you insinuating it’s my fault?” Hongjoong blurted out, half in anger, half in guilt.

“Well you definitely didn’t help.” Wooyoung replied in a snide manner.

Hongjoong slowly reached up and ran his fingers over the spot on his cheek where he had been burned the day before. There was not a single mark left on his flesh but it was as if his guilt left a lingering tingling sensation. Suddenly Hongjoong’s attitude did a complete reversal. He knew just cowering in the corner wasn’t going to help anyone.

“Alright then tell me what to do to make this right.” Hongjoong said in a determined tone.

Wooyoung gave Hongjoong a bit of a surprised look while Seonghwa let out a low, throaty laugh as Hongjoong approached, aggressively pulling against his restraints. 

“What the fuck is a walking corpse like _you_ going to be able to do to _me_ _?_ ” Seonghwa growled, his lips curling into a sinister smile. “We’re one and the same; both creatures of hell. Get rid of me? You’d be better off killing yourself in the process. Try it. _I dare you._ ”

Hongjoong’s jaw dropped, Seonghwa’s words stung like a dagger had been lodged in his ribcage. Hongjoong knew it wasn’t Seonghwa actually saying these things but they still hurt all the same.

“Don’t listen to him.” Wooyoung said in a quiet, comforting voice for the first time, coming between Seonghwa and Hongjoong, gently pushing him back.

“Like you said, you’re a vampire. I don’t think you can actually help without getting hurt. The same things that hurt demons and malicious spirits hurt you and based on the stupid actions Seonghwa had already taken to protect you, I’m sure he would never want that.” Wooyoung explained in a surprisingly calm manner. “Exorcisms might not be my forte but just sit back and let me do my work.”

Hongjoong let out a small defeated sigh and pulled over Seonghwa’s desk chair as Wooyoung went back to flipping through his book a bit more frantically until he eventually found the passage he needed. He proceeded to walk over to Seonghwa and placed 3 crosses on his chest, the metal searing into Seonghwa’s skin as he let out a pained hiss, cursing Wooyoung in tongues. Wooyoung paid him no mind as he paced the circle drawn on the floor cradling the book in his arms and carefully eyeing over the passage needed for the exorcism.

“If it gets too intense, you may want to leave the room.” Wooyoung commented offhandedly at Hongjoong.

“It’s fine. I’ll stay.” Hongjoong replied in a solemn tone, glaring at Seonghwa. “I need to make sure he makes it out of this in one piece.”

“Alright, if you say so…”

Wooyoung finally got to work. He began reciting the passage out loud as Seonghwa squirmed uncomfortably on the bed, spitting and cursing at his words. As Wooyoung continued, the bedframe began to shake and the lights began to flicker as Seonghwa’s body began to rise into the air pulling up on the restraints holding him in place. 

Hongjoong was becoming more and more anxious watching Wooyoung as the exorcism progressed. Dousing Seonghwa in holy water once more Seonghwa let out a blood curdling scream and Hongjoong couldn’t bear to listen, quickly covering his ears with his hands. But he couldn’t bring himself to look away. Seonghwa continued to yank against his restraints while making horrendous sounds, his back arching at an unnatural angle as Wooyouong’s voice became louder as the exorcism progressed. 

Suddenly there was a loud ripping sound and Seonghwa’s hands had ripped free, allowing him to rise upright on the bed, wildly thrashing at Wooyoung who was trapped within arm’s reach of him. Hongjoong’s mind immediately went on autopilot and he didn’t hesitate to leap into action, jumping onto the bed and tackling Seonghwa back down onto the mattress as Seonghwa tried to slash at him. Hongjoong was barely able to dodge the attacks, poofing into a cloud of bats momentarily before rematerializing and sitting squarely on Seonghwa’s waist to pin him in place. As the remnants of holy water on Seonghwa began to seep into Hongjoong’s clothing, he could feel a tingling burning sensation on his skin but he knew he just had to bear it.

“Wooyoung keep going!” He yelled as he pulled his sleeves over his hands, further pressing the crosses into Seonghwa’s chest without further burning himself in an attempt to subdue Seonghwa beneath him.

Seonghwa reeled in pain and took another swing at Hongjoong, grazing his jawline with his nails and slicing a deep wound several inches long. Hongjoong gave an agitated tick, his vampire instincts immediately taking over. 

Roughly taking hold of Seonghwa’s wrists and digging his nails into the soft flesh, Hongjoong quickly overpowered him, pressing him down into the mattress while letting out an angry rumble from his chest. The smell of Seonghwa’s blood filled Hongjoong’s nose and despite its normally alluring scent, in this setting it only fueled his anger, kicking his vampire senses into overdrive.

Seonghwa tried to fight him off but Hongjoong was too powerful, not budging an inch while quivering in anger. The exorcism was reaching its peak but Hongjoong wasn’t in the clear just yet as steam began rising off of Seonghwa’s body. The holy water was evaporating and it immediately began to burn Hongjoong’s skin and eyes. He gritted his teeth and turned his head away, fangs bared as he tried to bear the brunt of the searing pain.

“Wooyoung hurry up! I don’t know how much longer I can hold out.” Hongjoong growled, ducking his head low as the pain intensified.

Several grueling seconds later and Wooyoung had finally read off the last line of the passage. A blue light flashed through the room while Seonghwa let out a pitiful cry before going completely limp beneath Hongjoong.

“Is it done? Is it over?” Hongjoong said in an exhausted voice, his entire body heaving from the pain.

“It’s done. He’s safe.” Wooyoung replied out of breath.

Hongjoong’s hands were shaking something awful as he slowly let go of Seonghwa, finally noticing the damage he had done to Seonghwa’s wrists. In an instant he had poofed into a bat and circled around the room a couple times before changing back into his human form and holing up in a corner. His mind was racing and he was desperately trying to pull himself together despite how badly he was burned. The skin on his hands and all down the left side of his face and neck were nearly raw and Hongjoong had curled up on himself, trying to stave off the pain in any way he could.

“Are… you alright?” Wooyoung asked, cautiously approaching him.

“Take care of Seonghwa, I’ll be fine.” Hongjoong replied in a shaky voice, his wild eyes merely fixated on the floor. “I just need some time to heal. I just need blood.”

“Where do you keep your store? Do you need mine?” Wooyoung offered.

Hongjoong was surprised that Wooyoung was quick to offer his own blood so freely.

Hongjoong shook his head, “Fridge in the kitchen. Hurry please.”

Wooyoung rushed to the kitchen and tossed Hongjoong a couple bags of blood before getting to work seeing-to Seonghwa’s injuries. His wrists were in rough shape from Hongjoong’s nails but otherwise it looked like nothing had happened to him. Wooyoung was quick to clean and bandage Seonghwa’s wrists while finally freeing him from the remaining restraints. Hongjoong watched closely while nursing a blood bag, still huddled in the corner. Hongjoong’s burns were slowly beginning to heal but the damage was quite extensive and at that point all he cared about was if Seonghwa was alright.

Eventually Seonghwa came-to again and Hongjoong finally pulled himself back up to his feet.

“Hmm what happened?” Seonghwa said in a tired voice, rubbing his face lazily with his hands before running them through his hair.

“Don’t worry about it, typical exorcism, just rest.” Wooyoung replied in a kind tone.

“Damn.” Seonghwa cursed under his breath.

“How are you feeling?” Hongjoong asked quietly.

“Just… so tired.” Seonghwa replied groggily while rubbing his eyes.

When Seonghwa’s eyes fell upon Hongjoong his eyebrows knit together in a pained expression.

“Hongjoong, whatever happened to your face?” Seonghwa asked, gently reaching out towards him.

“I’ll be fine.” Hongjoong muttered, forcing a small smile and gently pushing Seonghwa’s hand away. “I’ll be healed up in a day or two.”

“My deepest apologies if I was the cause of any of this. Whatever the spirit said or did while I was under, I promise that was not me. I would never wish to cause you any harm.” Seonghwa replied in a sympathetic voice. 

“I know, I know.” Hongjoong said, giving a small nod as Seonghwa’s previously harsh words still lingered in the back of his mind.

“Well, thank you both for dealing with me, with all this.” Seonghwa said as he shakily pushed himself into a sitting position on the bed.

“I’m going to have Eden’s head over this.” Wooyoung grumbled.

Seonghwa gave a small laugh. “Don’t be too harsh on him. I’m sure he didn’t know this would happen.”

“You give him too much credit.” Wooyoung said with a roll of his eyes.

“I’m just glad things are back to normal.” Hongjoong interjected.

“I’m truly sorry for ruining our date night. I know how excited you were.” Seonghwa said with a bit of a sigh. “I promise I will make it up to you. Wooyoung, would you mind taking Dal for the weekend?”

Seonghwa began looking around the room for his trusted feline familiar.

“Dal!” Seonghwa called out. “Dal, come here my sweet boy!”

Seonghwa seemed somewhat confused as to why Dal was not coming when he called and Hongjoong and Wooyoung exchanged panicked glances with each other.

Wooyoung awkwardly cleared his throat. “About Dal... we, uh, we have some bad news…”


	10. Iudicium Et Error Pt. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Hallowe'en! Enjoy the last part of the Error mini story arc.  
> Nero Nero Nero~

As the days passed since the exorcism, Seonghwa’s physical condition had improved greatly much to everyone’s relief. He seemed to be almost back to normal however mentally and emotionally he didn’t seem to be all there. Hongjoong—who had managed to heal his burns within a couple days—would often catch him sitting on the couch, eyes glazed over, stuck in his own head. Every time Hongjoong questioned him about how he was feeling Seonghwa would always force a small smile and tell him he was fine and that it was nothing to worry about as his eyes always settled on the light pink healing flesh on the left side of Hongjoong’s face. He was never straightforward about his condition, the most he ever said was that he was simply ‘just tired.’

In reality after being filled in about everything that had occurred the night of the exorcism, the guilt from the injuries Hongjoong had sustained and the loss of Dal had taken a heavy toll on him. Dal had been with Seonghwa since his tenth birthday and was basically like family to him despite being an animal familiar. Without Dal, Seonghwa’s powers were waning. Since the familiar connection had been broken, Seonghwa could not draw his powers from the demon realm, which was a common power source for most witches. Instead he was forced to rely on old convoluted spells from ancient bands of forest witches. It was definitely not something he was used to, nor was he proficient in this new type of magic. Losing Dal was directly compounded with a feeling of incompetence at the one thing he used to truly excel at.

Seonghwa also kept trying to help Hongjoong’s healing by constantly trying to convince Hongjoong to feed from him to get his strength back faster but Hongjoong would always refuse. Hongjoong didn’t want to weaken Seonghwa any further when he was already in such a fragile physical and mental state but to Seonghwa it felt like Hongjoong was flat out rejecting him, as if blood was now tainted and he was unwanted. He was spiralling to say the least but he didn’t dare burden Hongjoong with his concerns because he knew Hongjoong had already sacrificed enough for him.

Hongjoong had also begun to notice that Seonghwa’s sleeping patterns had become rather erratic. More often than not, Hongjoong would find him awake in the middle of the night, frustratedly flipping through texts and spell books frantically taking notes. 

Then the rituals began and they quickly became a nightly occurrence.

Seonghwa was desperate to try and summon Dal back to him any way he could.

Night after night he would set up the imprint of the magic circle that he had originally used to summon Dal with no luck. Sometimes he would even add in offerings that would range from foods used in funeral rites to his own blood. He would try the summoning over and over until both his powers and his body were exhausted. It was not uncommon for Hongjoong to wake up for class only to find Seonghwa passed out on the floor of the living room, books scattered across the floor around him. Each time Hongjoong would carefully help Seonghwa back to his own bed so he could hopefully get a couple hours of restful sleep but Hongjoong’s own concerns were starting to grow and he could feel them growing more and more distant as Seonghwa’s desperation mounted.

Hongjoong started to become increasingly more worried the longer Seonghwa tried to bring Dal back. It had gotten to a point where Hongjoong was constantly reminding Seonghwa to rest and eat otherwise Seonghwa would go the entire day without so much as a break. He now also refused to leave the room when Seonghwa worked on his rituals, perching himself on the couch while intently watching Seonghwa and assuring him it was for his own safety.

On what must have been the twentieth night Seonghwa started up with his ritual once more, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. It was the first full moon since the exorcism and he knew the connection to the demon realm would be strongest that night. He recited the usual summoning scripture and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

When nothing appeared after an hour or so it was as if his entire being just gave up as he crumpled onto the floor on his hands and knees.

Hongjoong had been instructed not to interfere no matter what during the actual ritual so he stayed sitting anxiously on the couch, phone in hand ready to dial Wooyoung at a moment’s notice if things started to head south.

“Dal, please come back.” Seonghwa sobbed, his head hung low as tears began to stream down his face, dripping onto the floor. “I beg of you. I am nothing without you. Please forgive me.”

Seonghwa raked his fingernails across the wood floor as he balled his hands into shaking fists. His entire body gave a shudder as he let out a small wail in frustration.

“Dal…” Seonghwa continued to plead.

But at that very moment something strange happened: the magic circle began glowing red, softly at first but with a quickly increasing brilliance. It became so intense at one point that both Hongjoong and Seonghwa had to momentarily shield their eyes from the brightness. When the light finally subsided a dark figure stood in the center of the circle. Seonghwa looked up at it with teary eyes.

“Dal?” Seonghwa called out as the form came fully into view.

“Still calling me by that slave name I see.” The human-like form of Lune said in an agitated tone while crossing his arms.

“I’m sorry,  _ Lune _ .” Seonghwa quickly corrected himself, bowing in apology.

Hongjoong was quite thrown off by this new demon form of Dal—Lune to be more accurate. His eyes were a deep red colour and he had small black horns budding from both his temples. His hands and feet were claw-like and his skin was pitch black up to his knees and elbows. Hongjoong couldn’t help but think how Lune’s appearance almost mirrored how Seonghwa had looked when he was possessed and part of him wondered if it really was a demon and not just an average spirit that had briefly taken over his body. 

Hongjoong couldn’t take his eyes off Lune for even a moment as this form was so radiant yet vaguely threatening. But the most surprising thing about his appearance though was the fact that Lune was actually clothed. He couldn’t be 100% sure but Hongjoong was fairly certain he even saw a devil tail peek out from under the long burgundy robe he wore.

“I-it’s so good to see you again.” Seonghwa stuttered out, cracking a small smile and trying his best not to cry any more than he already had.

Lune just clicked his tongue in an agitated tone. “How pitiful.” He sneered as he bent down in front of Seonghwa.

Lune gently wiped away the tear that lingered on Seonghwa’s cheek. What could have easily been a touching moment was quickly shattered as Lune swiftly struck Seonghwa across the face with the palm of his hand. Seonghwa’s smile was immediately wiped from his face as he just sat there in dumbfounded shock for several excruciatingly long seconds, letting out a small gasp as he clutched his throbbing cheek.

“How  _ dare _ you.” Lune growled.

“I-I’m sorry.” Seonghwa sputtered.

“Do you know what I was put through after being banished? Literal hell. Because that’s where I was. But I do have to commend you…” Lune said as he slowly righted himself once more. “For how annoyingly persistent you’ve been these past few weeks.”

“Please forgive me.” Seonghwa said, bending over in a grovelling position. “You know I would never intentionally harm you. I was not myself.”

“You were weak.” Lune interjected as he idly inspected the nails on one of his hands.

“I know and I am truly sorry for that. Please just come back. Please help me become stronger.”

Lune gave a sigh and rolled his eyes, his gaze falling on Hongjoong momentarily as he ran his tongue over his sharp incisors in a small act of intimidation.

“Can I just say something?” Hongjoong interjected.

Both Lune and Seonghwa turned to look at him and Hongjoong suddenly became ten times more anxious with all eyes on him.

“Lune, Seonghwa has literally been running himself ragged trying to bring you back.” Hongjoong said in Seonghwa’s defense. “Seonghwa isn’t weak. Seonghwa is the strongest witch I know. It was my fault that he removed the protective charms that allowed him to be possessed.” 

“Hongjoong—” Seonghwa tried to quietly protest but Hongjoong quickly raised a hand to signal him not to interrupt.

“I am the one who is weak and Seonghwa was only trying to protect me. You know he would never banish you, not even on pain of death. You know he still cares deeply for you. And I know you still care just as much for him.”

“Me? Still care about a human who abandoned me? Whatever would give you that idea?” Lune said with a bit of a huff.

“You’re a free demon now, right?” Hongjoong continued.

“That is correct.” Lune replied curtly.

“Then why do you still wear the collar Seonghwa gave you?”

A look of bewilderment spread across Lune’s face as he reached up and gently ran his fingers along the length of the red choker that remained around his neck. He had not expected anyone, let alone Hongjoong to pick up on that. Lune was silent for quite some time as he seemed to stew in his own thoughts.

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe this piece of jewelry provides some sort of sentimental value from the human.” Lune finally said, not daring to refer to Seonghwa by name. “Or maybe it’s because he also placed a binding spell on me that I am technically still under or else I would obviously remove the collar. A binding spell to protect  _ you  _ I might add. Maybe what you said was correct and you truly are the weak one in this equation.”

Lune was a horrible liar. It quickly became evident to Hongjoong that he still cared deeply for Seonghwa but was too hard-headed to admit it.

“I guess I can make an exception due to the lingering spell and allow the human to take me back.” Lune said calmly as he looped a finger under the collar.

“You’d really become my familiar again?!” Seonghwa blurted out.

“I guess. Merely out of convenience.” Lune replied in a nonchalant tone, only briefly making eye contact with Seonghwa before looking away again.

Lune looked back over his shoulder at Hongjoong and gave a bit of a forced half-smile almost as if saying ‘thanks.’ Hongjoong knew then and there that the bond Lune and Seonghwa still shared was much more than some lingering spell and that Lune was just acting petty as was the nature of a demon. Perhaps it was his own method of coping with what had happened as it must have been as equally traumatic for him, if not more.

Seonghwa scrambled to his feet and immediately began the process to make Lune his familiar once more. As he searched for the right incantation Lune casually paced around the glowing circle on the floor. Hongjoong couldn’t be completely sure but it looked like Lune’s appearance was slowly becoming more and more human as the seconds ticked by.

“Could you be any slower?” Lune said playfully in a bored tone as Seonghwa was frantically flipping through his spellbook.

“Sorry, it’s not like I’ve done this spell recently. I only use it for the most important demons and obviously haven’t used it since I last bonded with you.” Seonghwa replied.

Lune’s lips curled into a sly smile, appreciating Seonghwa’s veiled compliment.

“Ah, here it is.” Seonghwa said as he finally found the page he was looking for. 

He looked up at Hongjoong momentarily and then back at Lune. “Hongjoong would you mind giving us a bit of privacy. This is a rather intimate process.” Seonghwa said quietly as his eyes drifted to the floor.

“Oh, uh, yeah! Sure! Just, uh, let me know if you need anything!” Hongjoong blurted out as he leapt off the couch and bounded towards his bedroom, quickly closing the door behind him.

Once he was alone Hongjoong let out a long sigh of relief in the hopes that now that Dal would be Seonghwa’s familiar once more things would finally be able to go back to normal and Seonghwa’s health would finally stop being at risk from his nightly summonings. 

Hongjoong gave a small contented wiggle as his mind began to wander thinking about all the possibilities for future dates with Seonghwa. Hongjoong gleefully flopped back onto his bed. He knew it was entirely selfish to think about that so soon after such a taxing few weeks but he couldn’t wait for both him and Seonghwa to be close again, to both be really happy again.

***

With the return of Dal, Hongjoong had been correct in his assumptions as after a couple days it was like nothing at all had occurred and everyone fell back into their normal routines. Dal had been stuck like glue to Seonghwa’s side nearly the entire time so it came as a bit of a surprise when Hongjoong heard a scratching at his bedroom door late one night followed by a couple small mews.

Hongjoong drowsily dragged himself out of bed and opened the door to see Dal sitting there, giving a happy trill and running into his room as soon as the door had opened wide enough for him to squeeze through. Hongjoong just lazily blinked as he watched Dal jump up on his bed and make himself at home.

“Alright, I guess you can sleep in here tonight.” Hongjoong mumbled as he shuffled back onto the bed and face-planted on his mattress.

Dal was quick to climb on top of Hongjoong’s back and start pawing at him.

“Whaaaaat?” Hongjoong grumbled into the mattress at Dal’s advances. “You’re so neeeedy.”

Hongjoong slowly rolled over onto his back and scooped up Dal in his hands, holding him up in the air above him.

“Listen Dal. Real talk for a moment.” Hongjoong mumbled with a bit of a yawn. “I know you are probably infinitely more powerful in your free demon form than your feline familiar form—I’ve been doing some research lately in an attempt to better understand Seonghwa and witches and familiars and you know,  _ whatever _ . It seems rather silly that you said you couldn’t just break the binding spell Seonghwa had placed on you when you and I both know it had pretty much no power over you since the familiar bond had been broken. Yet you turned around and immediately used it as an excuse to come back to him. I know the whole ‘guess I gotta because of the spell’ thing was all a ruse. ...Your secret’s safe with me.”

Dal gave a small dragged out meow as he wriggled in Hongjoong’s hands, protesting to be put down again. Hongjoong continued to hold him above his head for a few more seconds just to taunt him before placing him back down on the bed. He scampered across the comforter before carefully inching back towards Hongjoong once more.

“Anyways,” Hongjoong muttered in his half-asleep state, “I’m glad you’re back.” 

Dal padded his way up to Hongjoong, curling up tightly against his chest as he began to purr ever-so-softly.

“Hmm that’s a good demon-cat.” Hongjoong garbled out while giving Dal a small pat on the head as he drifted off to sleep.


	11. The Houseguest

The first exam week of the semester had just finished up and it was a quiet weekday evening when there came a loud knock on Seonghwa and Hongjoong’s dorm room door. While Seonghwa was normally quite prompt in answering, on this night he had decided to completely forego answering it. It wasn’t until the knocking became annoyingly persistent that he begrudgingly pulled himself away from what he was doing to shuffle over and answer it. When he flung the door open he was quite surprised to find San standing there, a blanket draped over his shoulders and tightly clutching a large stuffed animal against his chest, his white fox tail anxiously swishing behind him.

“San, now’s really not the best time—” Seonghwa began to say but he quickly picked up on how distraught San was. “That time of the month again? It’s my turn isn’t it.” He continued much more empathetically.

San didn’t say anything, his eyes fixated on the floor as he gave a small nod, his lips pursed into a pout.

“Alright, alright, come in.” Seonghwa responded in a tired tone.

“You’re the best!” San trilled, his disposition immediately becoming much brighter.

San gleefully made his way into the small apartment, hopping up onto the couch and making himself comfortable. Meanwhile a small poofing sound emitted from Seonghwa’s bedroom followed by several disjointed shuffling noises before Hongjoong emerged looking utterly exhausted and disheveled in the doorway.

“Did I hear someone?” Hongjoong muttered, pulling his oversized cardigan around him more tightly while leaning heavily against the door frame.

“It’s fine, it’s just San. But please don’t push yourself.” Seonghwa reassured him while locking the apartment door.

San quickly looked between Seonghwa and Hongjoong standing in the door of Seonghwa’s bedroom with an eyebrow raised in suspicion. San’s keen senses were scouring both of them for an indication of what exactly had just occurred, his mind automatically jumping to rather explicit conclusions.

“Why’s he here?” Hongjoong grumbled, lazily looking over at San sitting perched on their couch.

Seonghwa let out a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair in brief contemplation. “Sorry I should have mentioned earlier; we—our circle of friends—usually offer San a place to stay when it’s Yunho’s time of the month. It just so happens to be my turn. But don’t worry he should only be here for a few days.”

Hongjoong just blankly stared at him as he processed exactly nothing of what Seonghwa was saying.

“Yunho, my roommate.” San interjected in a tone similar to what one would use in talking to a toddler. “It’s a full moon in a couple days. He’s a werewolf.”

Hongjoong’s brain was working at a snail’s pace while trying to make connections but eventually the pieces started to fall into place.

“Ah-ahhh!” Hongjoong exclaimed, his eyes going wide as he clapped his hands together. “By ‘time of the month’ you mean—”

Hongjoong pretended to bare his fangs in a sinister manner while raising his hands like claws, mimicking something that could pass as a werewolf in a basic game of charades.

“He’s a bit slow, isn’t he?” San scoffed at Seonghwa.

“San, please.” Seonghwa scolded.

San rolled his eyes before turning back to Hongjoong. 

“You are correct.” He began to explain, taking the same child-friendly tone as before. “Two days before the full moon until two days after, Yunho has the tendency to transform unintentionally and while he’s literally the sweetest soul on the planet when in his human form and would never hurt a fly…” San’s voice trailed off and became small. “Sometimes he just can’t control himself and he does things he doesn’t mean.”

“That doesn’t seem… safe?” Hongjoong said as he tilted his head to the side.

“Yunho used to be able to go to a clinic during this time.” Seonghwa sighed, pressing his temple as he recalled all the information of past episodes. “But unfortunately once he turned 20 they stopped the funding being that the werewolf population has been in rapid decline so we have to make due with what we can. Yunho locks himself away in their apartment and San stays here or there for a couple days until Yunho gives the all clear.”

“So do you guys wanna play some Mario Kart or something?” San piped up.

“Not tonight San.” Seonghwa replied. “It’s rather late and Hongjoong’s been, uh, he’s been going through a bit of a rough patch and it’d be best if we just had a couple quiet nights’ rest, okay?”

San looked over at Hongjoong once more before letting out a small sigh. “Alright fine. It is your place after all.” He grumbled.

“Thanks.” Hongjoong gave a weak forced smile before trudging into his bedroom and closing the door behind him.

“Go easy on him, okay?” Seonghwa said in a pleading voice barely above a whisper.

San drew his eyebrows together in contemplation at this sudden change in Seonghwa’s character. Normally Seonghwa didn’t mind his teasing but something was definitely different since he was suddenly being so protective of his roommate. He couldn’t help but wonder if Hongjoong was sick or something. Seonghwa gave San a light pat on the head before turning off the lights in the living room and retreating to his own bedroom for the night. San stewed in his thoughts for quite a while as he curled up on the couch in an attempt to get some sleep.

***

The next day San returned to Seonghwa and Hongjoong’s apartment after his evening classes had finished, Seonghwa having given him a spare key knowing that he’d most likely be home later. San’s outward appearance was quite different this time around as his tail had been concealed and his hair was a much more natural black colour as he attempted to blend in better with the other students during the day. However as he passed through the door his appearance instantly changed back to how it had been the previous night with his fox tail appearing behind him as he gave his now silver hair a bit of a ruffle, messily tying half of it up in a tiny ponytail. He was somewhat surprised when he realized he had come home to what appeared to be an empty apartment. Taking a couple steps inside and kicking off his shoes, he otherwise left the lights off. The only light source he could see was a dim lamp in Seonghwa’s bedroom.

“Seonghwa?” San called, throwing his bag onto the couch while making his way towards Seonghwa’s bedroom. “Seonghwa’s roommate? Anyone home?”

The only response was a small meow from Dal.

“Dal?” San called as he poked his head into Seonghwa’s room.

Dal was perched on Seonghwa’s desk, tail flicking angrily back and forth as he let out a small guttural noise when his eyes fell upon San in the doorway. San just playfully stuck out his tongue in response as he approached.

Laid out on Seonghwa’s desk was a small, fluffy pink blanket only slightly bigger than a washcloth. It was folded over on itself with a small lump in the middle.

And the lump was moving.

“Dal what is this?” San asked as he curiously lifted up the edge of the blanket to peek at what was underneath.

San was quite surprised by the small fuzzy bat nervously vibrating under the blanket, cowering away from the small amount of light emitted from the nearby lamp.

“Dal!? What is this?!” San repeated, looking at the cat for any sort of answer.

San bent down, placing his face only a couple inches from Hongjoong, running his eyes back and forth over the tiny bat while giving a couple curious sniffs.

“Did Seonghwa get a new familiar?” San muttered half to himself, half to Dal.

Dal gave a disgruntled meow in response.

“Why… why does it smell like his roommate?” San said standing stark upright, eyebrows drawn tightly together in confusion. “Does his roommate have a familiar? Wait no, his roommate is a vampire. Vampires don’t have familiars but they do—oh my GOD is this Seonghwa’s ROOMMATE?!”

San dropped the blanket back over Hongjoong and quickly backed away.

“Dal, what the hell? Dal.  _ What the hell?! _ ” San repeated, covering his mouth with his hand somewhat shocked at his discovery.

San carefully lifted up the blanket at arm’s length once more, eyeing the quivering little ball of fluff.

“Um, H-Hongjoong?” San asked.

Hongjoong gave a small affirmative chirp before burying himself further in the folds of the tiny blanket.

“Oh my god it really  _ is _ him. But why is he like this?” San blurted out, facing Dal once more. “Ugh I don’t know why I’m even talking to you when you can’t even answer me. You just had to take a non-verbal form didn’t you.”

Turning back to the small frightened bat in front of him, San was panicking just a little, having no idea what to make of this situation with Seonghwa nowhere to be found. He carefully folded back the blanket, further exposing Hongjoong and timidly reached out, cautiously stroking Hongjoong’s tiny head with his pointer finger. Hongjoong gave a couple small chirps in protest as San did so. San quickly lowered himself back down so that his eyes were level with the top of the desk once again, eyeing Hongjoong intently as he continued to give him small pets in an attempt to earn some sort of trust.

“He’s so cold.” San said out loud in a sad tone. “Hongjoong are you supposed to be this cold? Vampires can’t produce their own body heat can they? Seonghwa did say you’ve been having a rough patch… is this what he meant? Are you sick?”

San mulled over his options but seeing Hongjoong pitifully huddled in the blanket made his heart ache. Very carefully he reached out and scooped up Hongjoong, gently cupping him in his hands. Hongjoong immediately gave a small chirp in protest and tried to struggle free but as San slowly gave him a couple gentle rubs with his thumb, Hongjoong seemed to ease more into San’s touch.

“It’s okay, I won’t hurt you.” San said in a soothing voice as brought Hongjoong up against his chest and began to head out of the room.

Dal was quick to jump down from the desk and follow them into the living room, carefully watching their every move. San kept the lights off but carefully laid down on the couch, balancing tiny bat Hongjoong on his chest while tucking his tail up beside him.

“Here, you just stay there a little bit to warm yourself up before Seonghwa gets back.” San said quietly as he reached for the TV remote.

For the next hour or so San stayed on the couch, idly watching whatever reality show was on the TV as he held Hongjoong closely. Eventually it became quite late and both San and Hongjoong had drifted off to sleep.

When Seonghwa arrived home some time later he immediately took note of someone asleep in the dark on the couch and tried to quietly make his way across the apartment without disturbing them. It was only when he made it to his bedroom that he noticed Hongjoong was gone from the blanket atop his desk.

“JwiJwi?” Seonghwa whispered as he looked around his room. “Hongjoong where are you?!”

Seonghwa frantically searched his room, going so far as to get on his hands and knees to check beneath his bed but Hongjoong was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t long before Dal came slinking into the room.

“You didn’t do anything, did you?” Seonghwa hissed at his familiar in a stern tone.

Dal simply gave a perturbed meow before turning back towards the living room. Seonghwa gave a frustrated sigh at Dal’s unhelpfulness and quickly went to check to see if Hongjoong had returned to his own bedroom instead. Seonghwa had barely stepped foot out of his room before a loud crash came from the kitchen as Dal knocked a couple metal pans off the counter. Seonghwa immediately froze in place.

At some point in the evening Hongjoong had unexpectedly changed back to his human form while still asleep, laying face down on top of San, his head tucked snugly under San’s chin. San had apparently been in such a deep sleep that he didn’t even notice the additional weight of Hongjoong splayed on top of him. However, the noise created by Dal had suddenly pulled both of them from their slumber and quickly threw them both into a frenzy. Hongjoong scrambled to free himself from San’s grasp and push himself up off of him. San was equally startled, having not expected to come face to face with Hongjoong so suddenly.

“San what the hell?!” Hongjoong blurted out as he flailed his arms and tumbled onto the floor with a thud.

“When did you start looking like a human again!? I thought we were having a nice bonding moment! I cradled your little fuzzy bat body in my arms!” San spat back as he sat up on the couch.

Seonghwa who had just so happened to witness the entire scene unfold from the door to his bedroom let out a small snicker and they both turned to look at him.

“What’s so funny?!” San blurted out.

“Nothing, nothing!” Seonghwa struggled out between laughs as he tried to hide his face behind his hand. “I’m just glad you two seem to be getting along.”

Even in the dim light emitted from the TV screen it was evident that San’s face was burning bright red in embarrassment.

“I was just trying to help.” San said in a small, angry voice as Hongjoong struggled to pick himself up off the floor. “I came home and the place was empty but I found bat Hongie all alone and shaking in your room and I thought he could use a little bit of comfort ‘til you got back.”

“Um, thanks. I guess?” Hongjoong muttered, nervously scratching at the back of his neck while ducking his head to avert any sort of eye contact with San.

“Hongjoong, I assume you’re feeling a little better?” Seonghwa asked.

“Uh yeah, I guess I just needed a couple days to recharge after the hell that was exams. I just really over exerted myself from my all-nighters… all-dayers? And maybe forgetting to eat enough. Thanks… both of you. God this is so embarrassing. I’m just… I’m just gonna go to sleep. In my bed. Right now. Okay, goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Seonghwa replied with a laugh.

Hongjoong quickly shuffled off and holed himself away in his bedroom once again so he could proceed to bury himself under a mound of blankets and internally scream for the next hour and a half over what had just happened to feel just a little less mortified.

“Does that happen a lot?” San asked.

“Hmm not as much anymore.” Seonghwa said in a confident tone. “It’s just a weird condition he has. He reverts to his bat form when he works himself up or wears himself out but he’s slowly learning what his limits are and how not to push himself too far.”

“So the other day when I came over you two weren’t…” San said in a suggestive tone.

Seonghwa didn’t immediately pick up on what San was saying but when it sunk in he quickly became flustered, his cheeks and ears burning.

“No! No, no.” Seonghwa sputtered out. “I mean, maybe one day we—oh my god what I am saying? No. He was burnt out from exam stress so I let him feed from me a little bit to get his strength back and he decided to hang around in his bat form while I worked. We weren’t exactly expecting visitors so we were a bit frazzled when you showed up.”

“Uh huh…” San said with a sarcastic huff. “Well… he’s lucky to have you.”

“I’m lucky to have him as well.  _ And you _ .” Seonghwa replied with a fond smile. “Thank you for taking care of him.”

“Whatever. It’s the least I could do to make sure Dal didn’t eat him or something. It’s not like I actually care about the little weirdo or anything.” San huffed as he pulled his large stuffed animal back towards him, clutching it tightly as he rolled over on the couch so his back was facing Seonghwa. “I’m going back to sleep.”

“Alright, sweet dreams.” Seonghwa replied with a small laugh as he too retired to his room for the night.

Once Seonghwa was out of sight, San quickly whipped his head over his shoulder to check if the coast was clear. Seeing that Seonghwa’s door was shut he carefully and quietly got up and made his way to Hongjoong’s door. Giving a light knock, he opened it just a crack to peek inside.

“Hongjoong? Can I come in?” San asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

Hongjoong let out a disgruntled noise that was neither a confirmation or condemnation of San’s request so San slipped into the room, closing the door quietly behind him. San tiptoed towards the bed, tail curiously swishing back and forth behind him as he gave the large lump on the bed a gentle prod with his finger.

“Hey can we talk for a second? You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. You just have to listen.”

Hongjoong let out another small noise as he wished the blankets would just swallow him up completely in that moment. The embarrassment of San not only seeing him in his most vulnerable form but also the incident on the couch made him want to just disappear.

“Sorry if I overstepped any boundaries earlier. You just looked so alone and scared… and knowing Seonghwa wasn’t around I had to do something.” San said quietly. “I’m sorry if I made things weird. I really didn’t mean to.”

“It’s fine. Really.” Hongjoong’s muffled voice responded from under the blankets.

“You sure?” San pressed, leaning over the mound of blankets that was Hongjoong.

“Yeah.” 

“You  _ really _ sure?”

Hongjoong frustratedly flipped off the blankets and just stared blankly at San for a moment. He 100% knew San was just baiting him to get him to talk to him face to face and it definitely worked.

“Yeah. I mean, you were able to put me at ease enough that I changed back without even knowing it.” Hongjoong replied reluctantly.

“So you’re saying I did good?” San asked with a small smile, leaning his head closer to Hongjoong.

Hongjoong’s face bore a mildly perplexed expression due to San’s odd advances before he realized what San was really looking for.

“Yeah, you did good.” Hongjoong replied, giving San’s head a couple gentle pats.

San’s tail flicked back and forth happily as a wide smile spread across his face, his eyes becoming small crescents in the process.

“I like you Hongjoong. I guess you can say.” San exclaimed as he got back to his feet.

“Uh, thanks?” Hongjoong replied.

“Okay goodnight!” San chirped out with a small wave before disappearing back into the living room.

Hongjoong let out a long sigh and buried himself back under the blanket and comforters.

“Seonghwa, you really have quite the strange group of friends don’t you...” Hongjoong muttered to himself.

“You’ll learn to love us!” San called playfully from the living room, having heard him.

Hongjoong let out another mildly mortified cry as he pulled his pillow over his head wishing he could disappear into the mattress.


	12. Miscommunications

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really quick, spontaneous mini-story based on a meme and a "what if" that Hizu sent. Enjoy!

[Chat - 8:06 pm]  
 **San:** Hey gonna swing by to drop off the spare key in a bit.  
 **Seonghwa:** I’m in class right now but Hongjoong should be home so you can just leave it with him.  
 **San:** Cool cool cool~

[Chat - 8:26 pm]  
 **San:** Dropped off the key. Chilling with Hongie for a bit. He’s so small and cute I’m gonna dieee.   
**San:** Tiny wittle babie~

[Chat - 9:22 pm]  
 **San:** Hey, where are you right now?  
 **Seonghwa:** Just picking up a few books from the library, should be home soon.

[Chat - 9:24 pm]  
 **San:** Get a load of this meme LMAO  
[Image 1 - hand holding a small clay cat with the text “Teeny clay tubbs”]  
[Image 2 - hand holding a completely smushed cat with the text “I STEPPED ON HIM?!?”]  
 **San:** [CRY-LAUGHING EMOJI][CRY-LAUGHING EMOJI][CRY-LAUGHING EMOJI]  
 **Seonghwa:** LOL  
 **San:** Imagine Hongjoong being that small.  
 **Seonghwa:** I’d rather not lol  
 **San:** Hey so totally and completely unrelated question, vampires have healing abilities, right? Like, Hongjoong can heal himself, right?  
 **Seonghwa:** Yes. Why are you asking?  
 **San:** Uhhhhhh no real reason. Even in teeny tiny bat form, right?  
 **Seonghwa:** Yes…   
**Seonghwa:** San…?  
 **Seonghwa:** Don’t tell me you stepped on Hongjoong...  
 **San:** [CRINGE EMOJI] Yikes haha. Don’t worry, everything will be fine.  
 **Seonghwa:** San.  
 **Seonghwa:** San what is going on? Is Hongjoong hurt?!  
 **Seonghwa:** SAN!  
 **Seonghwa:** SAN!?!  
 **Seonghwa:** SAN?!!!?!?

Without hesitation Seonghwa shoved his phone in his bag, grabbed his broom and sprinted out of the room. He had not even left the building before mounting the broom and zipping down the hallway, breezing past several other students sending papers flying into the air behind him. 

“Sorry!” He called back as he quickly rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.

With a loud crash he burst through the front doors of the library and soared up into the sky, holding tightly onto his hat and making a beeline straight for the dorms. 

Seonghwa was in such a hurry he didn’t even bother landing and entering the building through the front doors but instead decided to take a more direct entry. As he approached the building, he whipped out his wand, aiming at his bedroom window while muttering a spell under his breath. In a flash of blue light, for a brief moment the window glass disappeared and he went soaring straight into his bedroom, tumbling onto his bed with a thump. He struggled to untangle himself from the strap of his book bag and tossed off his hat and in a heartbeat he had gotten to his feet and lunged for the bedroom door knob. Wrenching the door open he thrust himself into the living room in a frenzie, his eyes wild, looking like a deranged madman.

“Hongjoong!?” Seonghwa blurted out in a panic, half out of breath with sweat already beading across his brown. “Hongjoong are you alright?!”

Meanwhile Hongjoong—who was very much safe and sound in his normal vampire form—sat on the couch casually nursing a blood bag, having just been interrupted from the drama he was watching. His entire body jolted at Seonghwa’s sudden appearance, eyes darting back and forth in confusion between Seonghwa and the unopened apartment door.

“H-how did you get in here? Have you been home this entire time?” Hongjoong stuttered out, slowly lowering his blood bag in confusion.

“Window.” Seonghwa huffed out, casually brushing a leaf from his windswept hair before making his way over to Hongjoong.

Without any warning Seonghwa began inspecting every inch of Hongjoong, poking and prodding until Hongjoong frustratedly swatted his hands away.

“What are you doing?!” Hongjoong huffed, shuffling away from Seonghwa on the couch while continuing to swat at Seonghwa’s hands.

“You’re not hurt anywhere are you?” Seonghwa asked, still mildly panicked.

“Mmm—no?” Hongjoong replied while taking a long slurp from the blood bag.

Seonghwa took a step back, placing one hand on his hip while running the other through his hair. He let out a long sigh half in frustration, half in relief.

“San was here to drop off the key right?” Seonghwa breathed.

“Yeah and he stayed for a little bit, stole some leftovers from the fridge and then left when you hadn’t come back yet.” Hongjoong replied.

“Sorry I was just so worried.”

“But… why?” Hongjoong huffed.

“I was just talking to San and he—”

It was at that moment that everything sank in and Seonghwa realized that San had obviously been leading him on as some sort of prank.

“CHOI SAN!” Seonghwa cried out in frustration.

Seonghwa’s eyes burned with an intensity that Hongjoong had never witnessed before and he inched a little further back on the couch, holding his blood bag close to his chest. Almost immediately Seonghwa had called forth a magic circle imprint and began angrily chanting a summoning spell. The magic circle glowed brightly and within a couple seconds a figure appeared. When the light dimmed, San stood in the center, looking a little bewildered at first but he immediately began to snicker when he saw Seonghwa’s angry expression.

“Abusing the use of a summoning spell? Uh oh, I’m in trouble.” San commented with a nervous laugh.

Seonghwa muttered something angrily under his breath and his broom came flying out of his bedroom, straight into his hand as he quickly brandished it towards San. Seonghwa’s glare looked like it could kill and San slowly inched backwards in the circle, still nervously laughing until the binding of the circle’s edge wouldn’t allow him to go any further. He quickly looked over his shoulder realizing he was trapped and raised his hands in surrender.

“Seonghwa it was a joke!” San blurted out. “Lighten up!”

San looked over at Hongjoong who seemed completely perplexed by the whole situation.

“Hongjoong call him off!” San pleaded. “You’re fine, right? Call him off!”

Hongjoong just gave an apathetic shrug. “I dunno man, you’ve apparently struck a nerve and I don’t even know what you did.” He teased.

Seonghwa confidently took a step into the circle, approaching San knowing he had nowhere to escape while still brandishing his broom in an intimidating manner.

“Seonghwa? Seonghwa please!” San pleaded all while continuing to nervously laugh looking between Seonghwa and Hongjoong.

In a swift movement Seonghwa had swung his broom stick, hitting San hard across his bicep with a loud _THWACK_. San let out a small squeak as he cowered away from the attack. Seonghwa flipped the broom over and began smacking him repeatedly with the stiff bristles.

“Don’t! Joke! About! My boyfriend! Like that!” Seonghwa growled between strikes until San was cowering on the floor of the magic circle.

“Alright, alight I’m sorry!” San squeaked out with another laugh. “I promise I won’t do it again.”

“You swear?” Seonghwa asked, pausing for a moment.

“I swear, I swear!” San stuttered out.

“You’d better.” Seonghwa replied with a huff.

Seonghwa slowly backed away and out of the circle. With a wave of his hand the magic circle completely vanished as well as San.

“What was that all about?” Hongjoong asked with raised eyebrows, taking one final pull on his blood bag to get the last few drops out.

“Don’t worry, that didn’t hurt him at all. Just had to teach him a lesson.” Seonghwa said with a sigh as he went and replaced his broom to the makeshift umbrella holder that stood near their apartment door.

“So... about what you said while beating his ass. You really consider me your boyfriend?” Hongjoong asked in a quiet voice.

Seonghwa stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes going wide in surprise as blush quickly crept up onto his cheeks. He spun back around to face Hongjoong, completely and utterly flustered.

“I’m sorry if I was too forward in calling us that. I—” Seonghwa tried to blurt out, not knowing exactly how to respond.

“No, no, I like it. It’s actually the first time I’ve heard it from you and not one of your friends in a joking tone.” Hongjoong replied with a smile. “Boyfriends.”

Seonghwa let out a relieved sigh. “Boyfriends.” He replied with a fond smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Link to meme: https://t.co/zgqT9fALHb


	13. Apartment 408

The first semester of the school year was quickly winding down and Seonghwa had been holing himself up in his room during his free time in an attempt to prepare for his finals. Hongjoong had a much more laissez-faire approach to his finals as most were in-class practicals and not typical examinations so he had decided to just keep Seonghwa company while he studied.

“These exams are going to be the death of me.” Seonghwa groaned, leaning back on his chair as he lazily stretched his arms above his head and gave his neck a bit of a crick. “Why did I have to take a double-major in ancient spellcasting as well as healing with a minor in herbology?”

Hongjoong looked up from the manhwa he had been reading on his phone as he sat curled up nearby on Seonghwa’s bed, Dal pressed up next to him fast asleep.

“Need me to get anything for you? You know I’ve gotten real good at boiling water. Want me to make you some tea or something? Help keep you awake?” Hongjoong offered as he absentmindedly stroked Dal’s soft fur.

“Hmm thank you but I probably shouldn’t have any more caffeine right now.” Seonghwa laughed as he looked at the five empty cups already scattered across his desk. “I’m not sure my human body would be able to handle any more stimulants without self destructing.”

“Sorry.” Hongjoong replied with a small pout.

“No, no don’t be!” Seonghwa laughed. “Us humans are fickle creatures. And I’ll gladly accept anything you make me.. Just no more tea for a little bit.”

Seonghwa dragged himself up off his chair, slumping down on the bed beside Hongjoong, scooping up Dal and holding him tightly against his chest. Dal let out a small mew in protest having been woken from his slumber and he wriggled under Seonghwa’s tight grasp.

“Calm down, calm down.” Seonghwa playfully murmured to Dal as he loosened his grip ever so slightly so Dal was able to rest more comfortably on his chest.

“So you’d rather cuddle with a demon cat when I’m sitting right here? I see how it is.” Hongjoong joked as he cracked a sly smile at Seonghwa.

“Should I remind you about the last time we snuggled two days ago where you burst into a flurry of bats?” Seonghwa retorted with a playful pout as ran his fingers through Dal’s fur.

“I can control it this time!” Hongjoong huffed, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow in mock anger.

“You sure?” Seonghwa asked, sitting up slightly as Dal slowly rolled off him and onto the bed.

Hongjoong nervously swallowed and frantically nodded his head.

Very carefully Seonghwa slid towards Hongjoong, never once taking his eyes off him as he gently snuggled up against him, resting his head on Hongjoong’s shoulder.

Not even three seconds elapsed before Hongjoong quickly pulled away, scrambling off the bed as Seonghwa flopped over onto his side with a small startled noise.

“Wait! Nope, nope, nope.” Hongjoong muttered to himself as he had evidently become very flustered and was quickly reaching his limit. “I’m sorry. I’m  _ so sorry _ Seonghwa.”

“No, it’s fine.” Seonghwa said with a sigh as he pushed himself back up into a sitting position. “You made the right call if you felt like you were getting overwhelmed too quickly. I don’t want to push you if you’re not in the right headspace.”

“I think it’s just the end of the semester stress that has me extra on edge lately.” Hongjoong muttered.

“Speaking of, I should probably get back to studying anyway.” Seonghwa said in a dejected tone as he rolled over and checked the time on his phone. “I still have... eight hours until my first exam.”

Seonghwa reluctantly pulled himself back over to his desk, picking up a new notebook from a nearby stack. With another long sigh he began begrudgingly flipping through the pages.

“Come on Dal, let’s give him some alone time. He doesn’t need us as additional distractions right now.” Hongjoong said quietly as he shooed the cat out of the room with him.

Dal let out a slightly perturbed meow but reluctantly followed Hongjoong into their living room.

***

The next morning Hongjoong awoke to a whirlwind of noises coming from the living room as Seonghwa scrambled to collect everything he would need for the day, randomly shoving various books and pieces of parchment into his bag.

“Shouldn’t you be at your exams right now?” Hongjoong asked wearily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Overslept. It starts in fifteen minutes.” Seonghwa replied as he frantically pulled on his boots, hopping in place as he did so.

Hongjoong quickly sprang into action to help Seonghwa collect whatever else he needed and saw him to the door.

“Dal, you’ll have to stay here with Hongjoong, okay?” Seonghwa said to the cat who had immediately tried to follow him out the door and let out a disgruntled meow when Seonghwa blocked his path. “Familiars are not allowed in the exam halls. So be good for him, alright?”

Dal let out another small meow and Seonghwa quickly gave Hongjoong a kiss on the forehead, grabbed his broom and was gone in a flash. Hongjoong just stood there in the door momentarily in a stupor as he gently reached up and touched the spot where Seonghwa’s lips had made contact with his skin. His lips slowly curled up into a bashful smile as he turned to head back into the apartment, closing the door behind him. Had his vampire body had the capacity to do so, he surely would have been blushing.

However as soon as he turned around Dal was sitting in the middle of the floor watching him intently as his tail flicked agitatedly behind him. Hongjoong felt slightly uneasy as he briefly made eye contact with Seonghwa’s familiar.

“What? Don’t judge me. You’re twice as needy as I am.” Hongjoong huffed as he walked past the cat and into the kitchen to grab himself a blood bag before making himself comfortable on the living room couch.

For the next couple hours Hongjoong idly flicked through the various channels on the TV, watching bits and pieces of different shows until he finally settled on a drama he had been meaning to watch. During this time though he had noticed that Dal kept pacing back and forth between the door and Seonghwa’s bedroom, letting out forlorn meows each time he passed by. Hongjoong wondered if Dal was lonely or something. Maybe he just missed Seonghwa? Although it wasn’t like he got to see him all day everyday.

“He’ll be back later tonight. Calm down.” Hongjoong called out. “Come over here.”

Hongjoong beckoned with his hand towards the cat but instead it turned and let out a small hiss before continuing its pacing back and forth. Hongjoong quickly recoiled his hand and grimaced at Dal’s odd behaviour.

“Fine, don’t come here.” Hongjoong muttered under his breath, taking a long sip of his third blood bag of the day.

Within a couple minutes Dal had begun howling as he continued to roam the small apartment.

“Dal! Please! I’m trying to watch this drama and I can’t hear it over your whining!” Hongjoong scolded him but he only let out a small pissed off growl before looking up at the door and letting out another loud howl.

“What is up with this cat?!” Hongjoong hissed as he got up from his spot on the couch and began searching for something he thought had seen before in one of the kitchen drawers.

Eventually he found what he was looking for, finding a small bag of catnip that had been tucked away in the back of one of the kitchen cupboards.

“Here, maybe this will calm you down a little.” Hongjoong said as he sprinkled a little bit on the floor.

Dal cautiously walked up to the dried herbs and gave them a sniff before letting out a loud sneeze and quickly skittering back and away from Hongjoong. Hongjoong watched Dal with a perplexed expression as he had expected a much more mellow response. Dal cautiously approached once more and gently rubbed his chin against the spot on the floor before flopping over on his side. Hongjoong let out a small sigh of relief as he replaced the catnip from the cupboard and went to head back to the coach. But before he could even take a step, Dal was suddenly right there at his feet, eyes wide and absolutely wild.

“Dal?” Hongjoong muttered, taking a step back. “You alright?”

Dal remained fixated on him for several seconds before his entire body gave a shudder and then lurched into the air, sprinting out of the kitchen and up onto the couch. He paused only momentarily before immediately launching himself off the couch and into Seonghwa’s bedroom when a series of crashing noises from various items being knocked over could be heard. He kept frantically running in circles, slowly tearing up the apartment as he did so and Hongjoong was becoming mildly concerned. It wasn’t long before Dal started jumping at the door handle to the apartment.

“Dal, you have to stay here!” Hongjoong called but Dal was determined.

Before Hongjoong even had time to reach him, Dal had managed to not only unlock the door but unlatch the handle and as soon as it was open he took one hard look back at Hongjoong before immediately bolting into the hall.

“Dal!” Hongjoong cried, scrambling off the couch and out the door of the apartment, not even having the time to put on any shoes.

Hongjoong sprinted down the hall after Dal but being that Dal was no normal cat he was incredibly fast and Hongjoong had a hard time keeping up with him even with his increased vampire speed. 

As Hongjoong rounded a corner his eyes went wide in panic as the tall figure of someone appeared right in his path. He desperately tried to skid to a stop but he had too much momentum as he slammed right into the person, sending himself tumbling back onto the hallway floor as the stranger loomed steadfast in front of him.

“Ah I’m so sorry!” Hongjoong blurted out as he sat splayed on the ground.

“You should really watch where you’re going.” The person stated in a deep but rather apathetic tone.

“I know, I know I’m—” Hongjoong stopped in the middle of his sentence when he finally looked up at the person who he had run into.

As his eyes travelled upwards, he couldn’t help but feel a slight wave of panic wash over him. The person was incredibly tall with sharp features and a shock of unnaturally deep red hair that gave them an intimidating aura, especially since they had not moved a single inch since being run into and their exhausted gaze was focussed solely on Hongjoong.

“I, uh, I—” Hongjoong could no longer form coherent sentences and merely began to babble as he didn’t know who or what this person looming over him was but whatever they were, they had to be some kind of powerful.

“You okay?” They asked in the same apathetic voice, shifting a bag from the convenience store down the street between their hands.

“I, yeah, I guess. Sorry.” Hongjoong blurted out.

What he had not expected was the stranger to reach out to him, leaning down and extending a hand to help pull him up. Hongjoong quickly glanced between their unchanging tired expression and the outstretched hand and timidly took hold of it, the stranger slowly helping to pull him back to his feet.

“Damn.” The stranger noted looking down at his massive hand holding onto Hongjoong’s.

Hongjoong’s stomach did a loop as he swallowed nervously.

“Your hands are so cold.” He continued.

“Oh uh, it’s nothing, really. I’m a vampire, that’s normal.” Hongjoong blurted out while cautiously pulling his hand free from the stranger’s grasp.

“A vampire, huh?” The stranger said, raising their eyebrows and taking a step into Hongjoong’s personal space, their tall stature literally casting a shadow over him.

At that moment there was a flurry of movement at their feet and Dal came bounding back down the hall in a frenzy, leaping into Hongjoong’s arms and knocking him off balance as he took several steps backwards to steady himself. Dal whipped his head around and let out an angry hiss at the stranger.

“Dal!” Hongjoong scolded the cat as he tightened his grasp on it.

“Dal?” The stranger asked. “As in Seonghwa’s Dal?” 

“Uh, yeah. You know Seonghwa?” Hongjoong muttered nervously in reply.

“Oh you must be his roommate!” He replied, his facial expression quickly softening into something much less intimidating. “Sorry, I just haven’t seen you around before. I live in apartment 408, name’s Mingi.”

By now the stranger appeared completely different as they brightly beamed at him with a toothy smile, giving a small salut as he gave his name.

“Hongjoong. I just transferred here this year… and try not to go out much during the day so I haven’t really met many of the people living on this floor yet.” Hongjoong replied, mildly flustered as he struggled to hold onto Dal who was wriggling in his arms wanting to be put down.

“Dal please stop!” Hongjoong pleaded with the cat. “You’ve already caused enough trouble today!”

There was a brief awkward pause between them as Mingi watched the large black cat continue to struggle in Hongjoong’s arms.

“Anyways I should be getting back before Dal is actually successful in his escape this time. Once again, I’m really sorry.” Hongjoong blurted out before turning around and quickly heading back around the corner to his apartment.

“Don’t sweat it!” Mingi replied with a wave as he headed down towards the opposite end of the hall.

Hongjoong’s troubles weren’t over just yet as when he tried to open the apartment door he realized it had locked behind him when he had chased after Dal and he didn’t have his key on him. Seonghwa also wouldn’t be back for a couple hours.

“Dammit.” Hongjoong cursed, holding Dal out in front of him at arm’s length. “This is all your fault!”

He gave the cat a small shake as it let out an agitated growl while refusing to look at him. Mingi couldn’t help but overhear the commotion coming from down the hall.

“Hey, uh, is everything okay?” Mingi called as he fished in his pockets for the keys to his own apartment.

“Yeah… uh, no…” Hongjoong called back in defeat. “I accidentally locked myself out when I went chasing after Dal.”

“You’re welcome to crash here til Seonghwa gets back if you want? I can send him a quick text to let him know?” Mingi offered as he unlocked his door and pushed it open.

“Thanks!” Hongjoong replied with a sigh of relief as he hurriedly carried Dal by the scruff of his neck back towards Mingi’s apartment.

Mingi held the door open and Hongjoong quickly made his way inside, putting down Dal and watching him scamper off into the kitchen of the small apartment.

“Maybe just don’t tell Seonghwa about Dal getting out though?” Hongjoong muttered quickly as Mingi followed behind him giving a confident nod in confirmation.

When Mingi turned on the lights Hongjoong was absolutely floored by what he saw. The entire apartment from the floor to the ceiling was absolutely covered in plants. Hongjoong’s jaw hung open as he took a couple steps into the living room, Dal zooming past him in the opposite direction into one of the bedrooms.

“Wow did you do all this?” Hongjoong asked, spinning in place as he tried to take everything in.

“Nah, they’re my roommate’s.” Mingi replied casually as he placed the small bag of convenience store food he had been carrying on the small table in the living room.

Mingi looked over at Hongjoong who seemed absolutely bewildered as to why anyone would have so many plants. “He’s a dryad. All the plants make him feel more at home.”

“Ahhh… really?” Hongjoong muttered. “I guess that makes sense.”

“He’s not home right now though, left for a week on some research project and left me to water all of them.” Mingi said with a bit of a huff as he threw himself down on the couch and began opening the cutlet meal he had bought for himself.

“So if he’s a dryad, what does that make you?” Hongjoong asked, still somewhat distracted by all the different plants. “I mean, if it’s not too much for me to ask.”

“Incubus. Well, half. But it’s not like you can really consider me human when I didn’t even have a pulse until I was seven years old. Sure do have the appetite of a human though.” Mingi huffed as he shoveled some rice into his mouth. “But you and I aren’t all that different since vampires feed off the blood of others and I sort of feed off the energy of others instead.”

“Don’t you, uh, aren’t incubi known for—” Hongjoong began to ask before he suddenly stopped mid thought knowing very well what he was about to ask was not something that should be asked upon meeting someone for the first time.

“No! No, no, no! I’m not about all that weird sexual stuff.” Mingi frantically replied, choking down his food. “I’m sure others get their energy that way but not me. No thank you.”

“Oh my god that was so inappropriate of me to bring up. Sorry. I’ve just never come across an incubus before.”

“It’s fine.” Mingi replied, letting out a hearty laugh.

Dal sprinted out of the bedroom he had been in, quickly darting around the living room before running back into the kitchen.

“What’s up with Dal?” Mingi asked, pointing to the kitchen and making a frantic circling motion with his chopsticks.

Hongjoong let out a long sigh. “Seonghwa asked me to look after him while he’s at his exams and he seemed really worked up so I figured maybe some catnip would calm him down a little—”

“You gave a demon catnip?!” Mingi scoffed, cutting him off. “Yeesh, no wonder he’s gone wild.”

“Yeah I didn’t know it would do  _ this _ !” Hongjoong replied as he flopped down on the floor. “He has been like this for almost an hour now and even managed to figure out how to unlatch the apartment door. Ugh I’m so exhausted!”

Hongjoong lay back on the hardwood floor as Dal came rushing out of the kitchen, pouncing on top of him as Hongjoong let out a small ‘oof’ before Dal sprinted back into the bedroom. 

Mingi took a strip of the breaded cutlet from his meal and hung it a couple inches off the floor giving it a gentle wiggle in an attempt to lure Dal over to him. It wasn’t long before Dal had appeared in the door of the bedroom, eyes wide and fixated on the piece of meat Mingi was offering. He flattened his body against the floor and gave a small wiggle before bolting into the room and taking hold of the meat. Mingi didn’t hesitate scooping him up off the floor as Dal loudly chewed at the cutlet.

“Easy does it.” Mingi said in a calm voice as he placed Dal upside down on his lap. “Catnip is like thirty times more potent when it comes to cat familiars so no wonder he went nuts.”

“Yet another thing I didn’t know.” Hongjoong sighed, wearily rubbing his face. “Why is everything so complicated?”

“Don’t worry, it should wear off in another hour or so. I promise I won’t tell Seonghwa.” Mingi said with a bit of a laugh as he pet over the momentarily distracted Dal. “But how about I calm him down a little bit until then?”

“How?” Hongjoong asked curiously, sitting back up.

When Hongjoong had righted himself, he noticed Mingi’s hand that was gently stroking over Dal’s belly was glowing a very soft orange colour.

“I’ll just borrow a little bit of this pent up energy that he has.” Mingi replied. “Kitty nap time.”

After Dal had finished scarfing down the meat Hongjoong could see him slowly becoming more and more lethargic as his eyes drooped. It wasn’t long at all before Dal was fast asleep on Mingi’s lap.

“That won’t hurt him, will it?” Hongjoong asked.

“Nah, he’ll be fine, just a little sleepy.” Mingi said as he gently turned the sleeping Dal over on his lap.

“Damn, you’re a real lifesaver. Thank you!” Hongjoong said with relief.

“Don’t mention it.” Mingi replied.

Hongjoong stayed at Mingi’s with Dal for another couple of hours until Seonghwa’s exams had finally finished and there was a light knocking on the door. When Mingi got up and answered it, a pleasantly exhausted Seonghwa was standing there with his broom slung over his shoulder.

“Hey, I got your text.” Seonghwa said partially out of breath as he shoved his phone back into his pocket.

“Yeah Hongjoong just came over to hang out for a bit. He didn’t want to leave Dal alone so he brought him along too and accidentally locked himself out of the apartment.” Mingi lied.

“Oh? I didn’t know you two were friends?” Seonghwa replied happily. “It’s nice to see Hongjoong finally venturing out and meeting others.”

“Uh, yeah.” Hongjoong replied with a nervous laugh.

“Anyways, I can let you back in now so why don’t we head home?” Seonghwa said with a smile as he beckoned Hongjoong towards the door.

Hongjoong nodded and got up off the floor, picking up the sleeping Dal up off the couch before he headed out into the hall.

“See you around Hongjoong!” Mingi called after him.

“Yeah! Thanks again!” Hongjoong said as he gave a bit of a wave.

Seonghwa and Hongjoong quietly walked down to the other end of the hall and Seonghwa went to fish out his keys from his pocket. When he looked down though he noticed something quite out of place.

“Are… are you not wearing any shoes?” Seonghwa said as he looked back up at Hongjoong with a concerned expression.

Hongjoong quickly looked down at his feet as he shifted Dal on his shoulder. He was still barefoot, having completely forgotten about not even having had time to put on his shoes earlier.

“Oh. Yeah. Whoops. Guess my head just wasn’t screwed on straight today.” Hongjoong laughed, playfully knocking himself in the head.

Seonghwa just shook his head with a soft click of his tongue. When they got inside, Hongjoong carefully put Dal down and he slowly padded his way over to the couch before curling up and going back to sleep.

“Wow, Dal seems exhausted.” Seonghwa commented, putting his broom away in the hall closet.

“Yeah… it’s been a day…” Hongjoong replied with a laugh.

“I wouldn’t disagree.” Seonghwa added with a tired smile.


	14. One Plus One

Having pulled an all-nighter the night before, it was early evening and the sun had already set by the time Hongjoong finally awoke to a flurry of noise coming from outside his bedroom door. When he stepped into the shared living space he found Seonghwa frantically running between the kitchen and his bedroom, the pungent smell of something burnt lingering in the air. Hongjoong paid no mind to the chaos and groggily shuffled towards the kitchen, still wearing the oversized t-shirt he had slept in with his hair completely unkempt and sticking out at odd angles. He absentmindedly tongued at his braces as he lazily opened up the small fridge to grab a blood bag to drink. His fingers wandered over the various blood types before finally settling on B+. He made no hesitation ripping into the plastic bag with his small fangs, taking in a large gulp of the thick metallic liquid and letting out a pleased hum as his ‘morning’ hunger was satiated.

It wasn’t until he stood back up to close the fridge door, blood bag hanging from his lips that he truly realized the chaotic state of the kitchen. Seonghwa was generally a tidy individual, almost to an anal extent at times but the kitchen was a complete and utter mess. Various potion ingredients were strewn across the countertop with what looked like jars of various failed attempts piled on the small table, some of their multi-coloured contents seeping out of their containers and onto the normally spotless tile floor below. This was definitely not normal.

As his senses finally began to wake up, Hongjoong gave the air a curious sniff and quickly cringed at the awful smell coming from whatever was currently bubbling atop the stove. Taking a long drag from his blood bag to empty it, he quickly covered his nose and retreated to the living room away from the mad scientist-like kitchen.

“Seonghwa?” Hongjoong called in a somewhat concerned tone as he wiped the few remaining drops of blood from his bottom lip. “Is, uh, everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine! Thank you Hongjoong!” Seonghwa called back from the other room in a frantic voice.

Hongjoong looked back over his shoulder at the mess in the kitchen as the concoction on the stove had begun to bubble over.

“You sure?” Hongjoong pressed. “Something smells like it’s burning…”

A series of uncharacteristic expletives could be heard from Seonghwa’s bedroom before he came rushing back to the kitchen to tend to potion brewing atop the stove, cursing once more when he saw the mess spewing out over the edge of the small cauldron.

“No, no, no, no! This isn’t good.” Seonghwa whined as he frantically searched for his misplaced oven mitts, his voice seeming so strained that he could break down in tears at any moment.

“Seonghwa…?” Hongjoong cautiously asked once more.

Seonghwa flicked off the burner and grabbed a couple of tea towels, wrapping them around the warped handle of the cauldron, immediately removing it from the heat and dumping the failed contents down the sink as he winced away from the smell.

“Ugh, I’m sorry Hongjoong.” Seonghwa began to say as he pushed his hair out of his face, his voice becoming more high-pitched as he began to talk a mile a minute. “I’ve been working on this project for my potions class and I just can’t seem to get it right no matter how many times I try and now I’m running low on ingredients and my best cauldron cracked this morning but this needs to brew for at least 4 hours once done and I’m running out of hours in the day so it’s just been ...I don’t even know how to put it... it’s a mess.”

“You seem really overwhelmed, is there anything I can do to help?” Hongjoong asked in a quiet voice, cautiously peering around the corner into the kitchen.

“No, no it’s fine I just need to take care of a few more things and fix what’s left and go pick up some stuff before the stores close—” Seonghwa suddenly stopped mid sentence and just stared at the floor, letting out a long defeated sigh as he did so. “Yeah, actually I could use some help.”

When Seonghwa looked back up at Hongjoong with an almost pleading expression, it was suddenly as if a swarm of butterflies had been released in his gut as Hongjoong felt as if he were about to melt into the floor.

“Yeah sure, it’ll be no problem at all.” Hongjoong replied with a small flustered laugh, anxiously scratching at the back of his head not knowing what exactly he was signing himself up for but knowing he couldn’t say no to Seonghwa no matter what it might end up being.

“Hongjoong you are literally a lifesaver.” Seonghwa breathed a sigh of relief as he dropped his shoulders.

Before Hongjoong could even move an inch, Seonghwa had swooped in, gentling taking hold of Hongjoong’s face while planting a soft kiss on his lips. Time seemed to slow down momentarily as every single one of Hongjoong’s senses immediately became overwhelmed; Seonghwa’s sudden show of affection had completely caught him off guard. But no sooner had their lips touched that Seonghwa pulled away once more leaving Hongjoong standing there wide-eyed and speechless as his mouth slowly opened and closed as if he were a goldfish suddenly caught out of water.

“Let me grab a list of things I need you to pick up from the store for me!” Seonghwa said excitedly as he disappeared back into his bedroom.

Hongjoong stood there mildly dumbstruck as a violent shiver ran through his entire body. He tried to give his head a bit of a shake to pull himself back, closing his eyes tightly and quietly muttering under his breath.

“Don’t do it Hongjoong. Don’t turn into a bat. You’re doing fine. You can do this.” He repeated to himself as he carefully made his way over to the couch to wait until Seonghwa returned a minute or so later.

“If you could run to the home goods store and pick me up some new equipment and a couple of these ingredients that would be absolutely amazing.” Seonghwa muttered as he quickly jotted down everything Hongjoong would need to pick up on a piece of paper.

When Seonghwa handed the list to Hongjoong, Hongjoong began to read it over but a perplexed expression quickly spread across his face the further he read down the list.

“Um, Seonghwa?” Hongjoong asked in a timid voice. “I really want to help, I do, but I, uh, I honestly have no idea what half of these things are?”

Seonghwa looked at him with a blank stare for a moment before he began fidgeting with the rings he wore on his fingers. “I had not thought about that… of course you wouldn’t be used to dealing with many of those ingredients if you had never worked with potions before. Hmm...”

There was a brief silence before Seonghwa’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“Wait, I’ve got it! Lune can accompany you! He will know what you need to get!” Seonghwa replied confidently.

“If you say so.” Hongjoong replied with a small nervous laugh.

“Dal! Dal come here my sweet boy!” Seonghwa called.

There was a small thump from his bedroom as Dal came prancing into the room with a happy chirp. Seonghwa bent down to meet him, giving the cat a gentle scratch beneath his chin as he rubbed up against his legs.

“I’m going to need Lune for a little while, is that okay?” Seonghwa asked in a sweet tone.

The cat let out a couple small meows in quick succession as it continued to wrap around Seonghwa’s legs.

“I know you don’t particularly like staying in that form but I could use all the help I can get right now. I want to make things a little easier for Hongjoong. Please?” Seonghwa gave a small pout as he spoke that last word.

Dal walked several paces away from Seonghwa and in a small poof, Lune was standing in his place fussing with a strand of dark hair that was hanging in his face. Having been exposed to Lune’s previous hijinks, Hongjoong immediately averted his eyes.

“Is he clothed this time?” Hongjoong muttered out, shielding his view with his hand.

“ _ Yes _ .” Lune replied in a snarky tone as he rolled his eyes and began to fiddle with the long sleeves of the oversized knit sweater that hung over his hands.

Lune casually walked over and flopped down on the couch beside Hongjoong, kicking his legs up over the arm and casually resting his head on Hongjoong’s lap with a wide grin.

“So, what exactly does master wish of me?” Lune playfully asked Seonghwa as he looked up at Hongjoong who was not daring to move an inch under him.

Lune gave a small smirk noticing Hongjoong’s uneasiness and sat back up on the couch, eyes flitting between Seonghwa and Hongjoong.

“I’ll need you to accompany Hongjoong to pick up some supplies I’ll need.” Seonghwa replied.

“An outing with Hongjoong? How fun.” Lune replied in a sly tone.

Lune leaned up against Hongjoong once more, playfully resting his head against his shoulder until Hongjoong gave him a couple awkward pats.

“Hongjoong has the list of supplies, I trust you’ll be able to help him find them?” Seonghwa asked.

Lune eyed the small paper clenched tightly in Hongjoong’s hand and quickly yanked it from his grasp, looking it over with a hum and a couple small nods as his eyes travelled down the list.

“You can take my broom if you think it’ll be faster.” Seonghwa offered.

“Wait, let  _ Lune _ fly?” Hongjoong protested.

“Yes, don’t worry, he’s quite agile. You’ll be in safe hands.” Seonghwa replied casually.

“Unless Hongjoong’s scared.” Lune teased.

Hongjoong let out a long sigh and reluctantly agreed. He didn’t want to be a scaredy bat but that was just his nature. Lune gleefully hopped off the couch, retrieving Seonghwa’s broom from the closet and casually swinging it over his shoulder. Hongjoong quickly disappeared into his bedroom to get changed out of his pyjamas and as soon as he was ready, he gave Seonghwa one final goodbye before he and Lune headed downstairs.

“Hold on tight.” Lune instructed as Hongjoong sat behind him on the broom, arms reluctantly wrapped loosely around his torso.

Lune slowly kicked off the ground and once they were a couple feet in the air, gave the broom a small bump. He immediately felt Hongjoong’s grip tighten. He cracked a sly smile while letting out a small laugh.

“I told you to hold on tight.” Lune said playfully. 

“Yeah, yeah just fly fast.” Hongjoong grumbled out, having tightly pressed his face into the back of Lune’s fluffy coat so that he wouldn’t have to see how high they were off the ground.

“As you wish.” Lune replied with a devilish glint in his eyes as they took off, zipping through the narrow streets.

When they reached their destination a couple minutes later Hongjoong nearly fell to the ground as he tried to dismount, his knees shaking horribly as he clung to Lune’s coat sleeve in an attempt to steady himself.

“You said to fly fast.” Lune said with a pout noticing Hongjoong’s shaky condition.

“I didn’t think you’d go  _ that _ fast.” Hongjoong replied, half doubled over as he tried to get his bearings once more. “We are taking a taxi home. Period.”

“As you wish.” Lune said in a reluctant tone as he dismounted in a much more graceful manner. “But you managed to endure the entire trip without turning into a bat so I think you did well.”

Hongjoong looked at him with a confused stare as Lune reached out and gently pinched his cheek in a playful manner. Hongjoong quickly swatted his hand away and they headed into the home goods store.

When they entered the store, Lune seemed to know exactly where to go and they began filling up the small shopping basket that Hongjoong carried along with him. Hongjoong had never spent so much time alone with Lune, at least not with this form of Lune and it was definitely an experience to be sure. At least when he was left alone with Dal, Dal wouldn’t bicker or talk back to him. As they were heading through the aisles looking for various items, they would often argue over which item they thought Seonghwa would prefer best until one of them finally gave in, usually Hongjoong because he had to admit that Lune was much more magically inclined than he was. 

“Keep up Batty.” Lune called playfully from the end of an aisle as he disappeared down the next, Hongjoong lugging the heavy shopping basket behind him.

While Hongjoong found Seonghwa’s nickname of ‘JwiJwi’ quite endearing, he couldn’t help but scowl every time Lune referred to him as some sort of bat. Which was quite often on this particular excursion. Lune was becoming much bolder in testing his limits with Hongjoong.

They had gotten into another heated debate over which cauldrons Seonghwa would most likely need—Hongjoong taking the stance that buying an additional cheap cauldron may be best since there was a one plus one sale while Lune wanted to stick strictly to what was indicated on the list—when something suddenly seemed to catch Lune’s attention and he momentarily went silent as they passed by a couple other eccentric-looking shoppers. As Lune looked back over his shoulder at them, Hongjoong noticed his eyes flicker red as he did so.

“Pretend we are still arguing.” Lune said in a low voice as he turned back to Hongjoong, gently ushering him further down the aisle.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Hongjoong replied, playing along with over-exaggerated argumentative hand movements as if he was gesturing at the household goods they were standing in front of.

“Nothing. Just a bad feeling.” Lune continued. “That blond man we just passed, he’s the familiar of a necromancer. And he definitely picked up on my familiar imprint as well.”

“N-necromancer?!” Hongjoong blurted out as Lune quickly hushed him, roughly grabbing onto the front of his coat and pulling him into another aisle.

“Do you  _ want  _ to get caught?” Lune hissed. “Let’s just get the remainder of the items Seonghwa wanted and get out of here. Fast.”

As they continued to shop Hongjoong couldn’t help but overwhelm Lune with dozens of questions.

“Who is he? Why is he here? How do you know it was his familiar?” Hongjoong rattled off in quick succession.

“Listen.” Lune said in a mildly agitated tone, stopping in his tracks to face Hongjoong. “When you’ve been around the demon world as long as I have you just learn to pick up on these things. The more powerful the familiar, the easier it is to pick them out of a crowd.”

“Okay but I didn’t even know necromancers still existed or that they have familiars either...” Hongjoong continued.

Lune let out a long sigh knowing that Hongjoong’s questions weren’t going to end anytime soon.

“There are not many necromancers left but they are definitely not the sort of people you want to associate with. They are incredibly dangerous.” Lune explained as his eyes quickly scanned the shelves for the remaining items he was looking for. “There are rumours that that particular familiar is not your average demon. And the necromancer who that familiar belongs to? I've heard that he is ridiculously powerful as well. They say that he managed to take on three familiars. Not even the most powerful witches can usually take on more than two, let alone three. I've also heard that he was banned from every magic academy in the country for the misuse of his powers after the death of a student so who knows what he’s capable of.”

A shudder ran through Hongjoong’s body as he checked over his shoulder once more, staring down the empty aisle behind them. “He sounds sort of terrifying.”

“Exactly and being that he has power over the dead and you’re not exactly…  _ alive _ ,” Lune began to say looking Hongjoong up and down with a bit of a frown, “I would surely be banished without a second thought should I let him do anything weird to my master’s love interest.”

“Do you think he would really try something? In public?” Hongjoong scoffed.

“I’m not taking the chance.” Lune replied bluntly.

“Wait, you really consider me Seonghwa's love interest?!” Hongjoong suddenly blurted out.

“I swear you can be so incredibly dense sometimes.” Lune replied with narrowed eyes before moving on.

Lune grabbed the last ingredient on the list and they quickly went to purchase all the items and head home before they ran into any more trouble. Lune reluctantly allowed Hongjoong to call for a taxi instead of allowing him to fly them home. The taxi ride was unusually silent as Hongjoong’s thoughts were filled with thoughts about who this necromancer was and what they were capable of. Lune seemed to be mildly on edge the entire time as well. It wasn’t until they finally pulled into the drive of the dorm building that Lune finally seemed to ease up, making a couple of light jabs at Hongjoong as they unloaded the trunk of the taxi.

“Can I ask a favour of you?” Lune asked before they entered the building. “Don’t tell Seonghwa about the encounter with the necromancer’s familiar, okay? Theoretically I should have been able to sense them before we even stepped foot the store but I guess I just let myself get too comfortable. I don’t want Seonghwa to worry.”

Hongjoong was a little taken aback by how candid Lune was suddenly being.

“I promise as long as you don’t tell him about that one time with the cap nip.” Hongjoong replied with a laugh.

“Deal?” Lune said, extending his hand in a handshake.

When Hongjoong took Lune’s hand there was a sudden flash of light and he quickly let go, a slight tingling feeling lingering in his fingertips.

“What was that?!” Hongjoong blurted out as he rubbed his hand, shuffling the shopping bags on his arms haphazardly.

“Congratulations, you just made your first deal with a demon.” Lune smirked as he gave Hongjoong a playful wink.

“W-wait, what does that mean?!” Hongjoong stammered, eyes wide in concern.

Lune just cracked a sly smile as he quickly headed into the building, arms full of shopping bags.

“Don’t worry about it!” He called back happily in a sing-song voice.

“Lune! Get back here! What does that mean!” Hongjoong hissed, rushing after him.

Lune merely let out a laugh as the door slowly closed behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wondering about the individuals Hongjoong and Lune encountered at the home goods store? This chapter is directly tied in with Chapter 3 of [The Necromancer Next Door](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27637016/chapters/67620491). ;)


	15. Awkward Beginnings

Seonghwa thought it was almost too good to be true when dorm move-in day came and he walked into his assigned apartment only to discover he would have an entire two-bedroom apartment all to himself. It wasn’t uncommon for him to use his family name and wealth to pull some strings now and then to acquire what he wanted but this was more than he could have ever hoped for.

The prospect of having an entire extra bedroom was wonderfully exciting and he quickly went about brainstorming what he could do with the spare room, gleefully tossing himself down on the bare mattress. He was sure he would easily be able to make use of the space whether it be for storage to house his numerous spell books or even as a separate workspace where he could practice his summoning unbothered. It could even serve as a more consistent place for San to crash for a couple days each month without having to have him rotate between couches. Seonghwa let out a contented sigh as he stared up at the ceiling, mind wandering with possibilities.

Those ideas were quickly dashed when there came a loud knock on the door and he was yanked from his daydream.

“Can I help you?” Seonghwa asked in a mildly concerned tone, eyeing over the individual standing in front of the door, a large suitcase at his side.

Hongjoong definitely gave a much colder vibe when he first arrived. He was dressed from head to toe in entirely black clothing which normally wouldn’t be all that odd except for the fact that he was wearing a long-sleeved turtleneck, leather jacket and fingerless gloves in the middle of August when it was 30 degrees Celsius outside on a daily basis. He was also wearing a black beret which covered all of his hair, a black face mask and small dark circular sunglasses indoors. It was quite an unusual ensemble as barely any of his ghostly pale skin was visible.

“This is 416 correct?” Hongjoong asked, looking over a small paper in his hand.

“Yes?” Seonghwa answered.

“Alright then. I guess we’re roommates.” Hongjoong replied dryly, crumpling up the paper and shoving it in his pocket.

“I'm sorry but there must be some sort of mistake as I explicitly requested a single room — ” Seonghwa huffed.

“Well, apparently there's a shortage in housing so looks like you're gonna be stuck with me.” Hongjoong grumbled, pushing past him into the small apartment with his large suitcase.

For his rather short stature, Hongjoong was a lot more assertive than Seonghwa had expected and Seonghwa stood there blinking in mild disbelief at the audacity of this...  _ individual _ before slowly closing the door behind him.

“Come in. Make yourself at home.” Seonghwa replied in an annoyed tone dripping with sarcasm.

Hongjoong kicked off his shoes without a word and wheeled his suitcase down the short, narrow hall to the living room. Having only taken a couple steps into the room, Dal immediately picked up on his presence from his spot on the couch, leaping to his feet. He backed away ever-so-slightly, hackles raised, and glowing eyes fixated on Hongjoong as he let out a low hiss. Hongjoong stopped dead in his tracks as his eyes went wide in fright and his face cringed at the intimidating sight of the familiar but his discomfort was all hidden behind his mask and sunglasses. Otherwise, Hongjoong’s outward appearance continued to come off as cold, stoic, and unbothered which only further unnerved Seonghwa.

“Dal, that’s enough!” Seonghwa scolded as he quickly ushered the feline off the couch and into his bedroom.

“I see you’ve already claimed the larger room.” Hongjoong muttered looking over at Seonghwa’s already neatly unpacked bedroom before making a beeline for the empty one in front of him.

“Sorry, if I had known that I would be sharing the space I would have waited to decide on bedrooms.” Seonghwa commented in a tone that had an air of fake hospitality. “Now, if you would excuse me, I need to tend to my startled familiar and make a couple of calls.”

Seonghwa quickly retreated to his own bedroom and shut the door, immediately grabbing his cellphone off his desk.

After a couple very heated calls to the housing department that might have been a tad too loud—possibly out of spite, hoping that Hongjoong would overhear him and understand his frustration—Seonghwa realized that Hongjoong really had been telling the truth about there being a housing shortage and he slowly slumped down on his bed as reality sunk in. Seonghwa would be stuck with him for the duration of the semester or at least until other housing arrangements became available.

Letting out a long sigh Seonghwa just laid back on his bed and stared off into space for some time as he tried to come to terms with having to live with a complete stranger for the next few weeks or even months. Dal had hopped on the bed beside him and was pushing against his hand in some attempt to comfort him but Seonghwa merely ignored his advances.

Seonghwa knew he had to at least  _ attempt _ to be civil to this new person if they were going to have to share the same space so he reluctantly got back to his feet and headed over to Hongjoong’s room, knocking lightly on the open door frame as he did so.

Hongjoong did not even acknowledge him as he dumped some of the crumpled up contents of his suitcase out on his bed.

“Sorry about earlier.” Seonghwa said, leaning against the door frame.

“Don’t worry about it.” Hongjoong grumbled as he continued to unpack his suitcase, messily throwing some of his clothes into a nearby drawer. “You weren’t the only one who was promised a single and ended up with a surprise roommate, I was as well. But! I’m number 9 on the waiting list if a single becomes available so if we’re lucky I should be out of your hair in a couple weeks.”

Seonghwa let out a long sigh. “Well until then we will just have to make the best of this less-than-ideal situation.”

Hongjoong didn’t reply.

Seonghwa noticed that Hongjoong was still wearing the numerous layers of clothing, having only moved his mask down to his chin but he had not even removed his jacket.

“Aren’t you hot wearing all that?” Seonghwa asked, gesturing up and down at Hongjoong’s attire.

“No.” Hongjoong replied curtly.

Seonghwa just rolled his eyes in disdain at how horribly this was going already. He dug out his phone from his pocket and began scrolling through his resident move-in email.

“So as per the school’s housing protocol 847.1, when rooming with another student we are required to disclose our supernatural abilities to ensure the safety of both parties. I’ll go first. My name is Park Seonghwa. I am human, a Class 4 witch, and my demon cat familiar Dal lives with me but if he is a bother to you I can keep him isolated to my bedroom.”

“Oh, uh, cool, I guess?” Hongjoong replied in a preoccupied tone while still rummaging through his luggage.

“Well? What about you?” Seonghwa pushed.

“Hongjoong, Kim Hongjoong. And, uh, vampire.” Hongjoong replied curtly once more.

Seonghwa looked on, anticipating Hongjoong to elaborate but soon became even more frustrated when he realized that was Hongjoong’s full answer.

“That’s it? Just ‘vampire’?” Seonghwa scoffed in an agitated manner while crossing his arms.

Hongjoong stopped what he was doing and let out a long sigh. He turned to fully face Seonghwa for the first time, peering out from under his sunglasses.

“Sorry, but as you are probably well aware it is the middle of the day and me, being a vampire who typically is awake during the night hours, I am still acclimatizing to human timeframes so I’m a bit tired and my brain is a bit foggy right now.” Hongjoong grumbled gesturing at the nearby window where plenty of natural light was streaming into the room. “Not to mention they didn’t even use UV glass in these old buildings so even just being here right now is exhausting.”

Hongjoong took in a deep breath sliding his small sunglasses down even further while pinching the bridge of his nose.

“What is it exactly that you need to know?” He muttered in an aloof tone as he tried to concentrate.

“Well, I guess just — pardon my language, but a slightly more detailed profile as to what you are.”

“Like I said I’m a vampire — pure blooded not turned. I am 21 in human years so I’m not some ancient crypt keeper like you’re probably used to seeing in the movies. Because I’m pureblooded, sunlight won’t immediately kill me but it is incredibly draining and still will leave a nasty burn if I’m not careful, hence all the clothes.” Hongjoong rambled, he eyed over Seonghwa as he did so, noticing the numerous crosses and other symbols worn on his body. “Crosses and holy water also burn something awful.”

“Noted.” Seonghwa commented, subconsciously fidgeting with one of the many rings he wore. “I assume you also feed on blood?”

“That would be correct.” Hongjoong replied as he turned back to his suitcase.

“Well in that case, as per housing protocol 45-B I do not presently give consent for you to feed on me.”

Hongjoong rolled his eyes and lolled his head to the side to look at Seonghwa with a perturbed expression.

“Just because I’m a vampire does not mean I immediately want to drink the blood of every human I come across.” Hongjoong replied in a tired tone.

Seonghwa could feel his cheeks burning slightly with embarrassment over his invalid assumption.

“I apologize, I just wanted to make sure we were clear on things.” Seonghwa replied in a small voice. “You know, for safety.”

“Yeah, for safety. Sure.” Hongjoong parroted back in a dry tone with a small laugh. “I’m having a shipment of blood delivered here in the next few days. You don’t have to worry, I won’t be sneaking into your bedroom in the middle of the night to seduce you and drain you of your blood.” 

Hongjoong gave a mockingly spooky finger wiggle towards Seonghwa.

“Alright. Well. I will leave you to finish your unpacking then.” Seonghwa replied in a dejected tone as he exited the room. 

Hongjoong worked diligently to get his bedroom set up over the next half hour but as he was carrying some items over to the small closet, his phone fell out of his jacket pocket, bouncing across the carpeted floor. As Hongjoong bent over to pick up his phone, the bare flesh of his fingertips momentarily passed through a refracted beam of sunlight. He quickly pulled his hand back with a pained hiss as if he had touched the surface of something hot.

“Dammit! Literally the bare minimum would have been installing UV glass.” Hongjoong cursed out loud to himself as he nursed his burned fingers. “But  _ no _ . They had to make things difficult literally every step of the way.”

He lazily kicked the phone out of the direct sunlight with his sock foot before reaching for it once more and successfully picking it up.

“Ugh I’m so  _ tired _ .” Hongjoong whined as he slumped down onto the floor, leaning back against the side of his bed as he used every ounce of restraint not to turn into a bad and go hide in the darkest corner of the room.

It had been less than an hour since he had arrived, he couldn’t let his roommate see him in his most vulnerable form so soon. He struggled to push himself back up onto his bed with a small groan as his tired body protested every movement.

Meanwhile Seonghwa was in the living room unpacking the last of his items within earshot and had unintentionally witnessed Hongjoong’s plight. A forlorn expression spread across his face when he realized just how difficult the adjustment to human living was for Hongjoong and the massive sacrifices he was making just to attend school. Seonghwa couldn’t help but feel bad about how curt and presumptive he had been earlier

***

A couple hours had passed and Seonghwa returned to Hongjoong’s room to find him lying face down on his bed. Seonghwa wasn’t sure if he was asleep or what but he gave a timid knock on the door.

“Hongjoong?” Seonghwa called softly.

“Mmm? Yeah? I’m up. I’m up.” Hongjoong replied with a long groan as he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position on the bed, grabbing his small sunglasses from the side table and putting them on so he could look over at Seonghwa without having to squint.

“You said they didn’t use UV glass in the windows, maybe I could be of assistance?” Seonghwa offered, holding a sleek black wand in one hand and a large spell book in the other.

Hongjoong just slowly blinked at him. “Uh, sure. Do whatever you want.”

Seonghwa took a couple paces into the room and nervously cleared his throat. He began to recite a spell from the page he had open in the book while brandishing his wand towards the window in Hongjoong’s room, drawing a large rectangle in the air. As the spell progressed, the glass in the window frame glowed a soft blue colour before turning transparent once more as Seonghwa finished up.

“There, that should protect you from the UV rays so you don’t have to worry about their negative effects indoors. I already tested it out on my own windows so the entire apartment should be safe for you now.” Seonghwa said casually. “It’s not a perfect fix but I called maintenance and let's just say they owe me a favour so they’ll be here sometime next week to install proper UV glass and will work on upgrading the common areas in the building as well.”

“Oh… uh, thanks!” Hongjoong replied, rendered somewhat speechless at Seonghwa’s impressive act of kindness.

Hongjoong slowly began to peel off one of his fingerless gloves, using his teeth to fully remove it and exposing his small fangs for the first time. He carefully reached out towards the window, timidly letting the rays of sunlight wash over the bared skin of his hand before placing his palm flat against the glass. 

Nothing happened.

Hongjoong’s skin remained unscathed and he let out a huge sigh of relief as he crumpled back onto his bed.

“Wow, it really worked!” Hongjoong huffed, turning his hand over in amazement. “You’re sort of amazing Seonghwa. I can finally relax now.”

Hongjoong immediately removed his sunglasses as his eyes adjusted to the less harsh lighting in the room. He excitedly began peeling off the excess layers of clothing, tossing them on the floor as he flopped back on his bed with a contented sigh. Seonghwa quietly backed out of the room, disappearing back to his own bedroom.

“Thanks Seonghwa!” Hongjoong called loudly from his room.

“You’re welcome.” Seonghwa replied quietly with a small smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Twitter @ColourandCity_ for polls to help choose the next story.


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